Our Public Investigator team wants to solve your problems

We are resurrecting our Public Investigator team this week to track down tips from readers anywhere in the state about corruption, wrongdoing, incompetence or other problems affecting folks’ day-to-day lives.

This is how we solve problems in our democracy — by bringing them to the public’s attention so they can demand better.

In our first P.I. report, we tested the water systems of 40 communities across Wisconsin for “forever chemicals” contamination, filling in gaps where state and local officials have been slow to respond. These compounds don’t break down and instead accumulate in our bodies over time. They’ve been associated with a variety of ills in lab animals, from cancerous tumors and reproductive problems to increased cholesterol levels. We found levels of the odorless, colorless chemicals above EPA health recommendations at 12 sites, or 30% of those tested. We also found elevated levels in two water supplies that the state previously had determined were free of contamination.

Other Public Investigator stories coming soon will examine a mysterious house explosion in the Adams County town of Rome, an east side Milwaukee eyesore that has frustrated neighbors for years, and questionable lending practices on tribal lands.   

Our tagline explains how we'll go about it: Taking tips, chasing leads, exposing problems. 

We'll do our best work with your help. We will be looking at systemic issues, but also stories that affect individuals and families and reveal how government, businesses or civic institutions are doing their jobs — or not doing them.

This team will be anchored by investigative reporter Katelyn Ferral and involve regular contributions from across our statewide network of reporters. Investigative editor Sam Roe will spearhead the effort.

We offer many easy and safe ways to share tips — including phone and email, but also encrypted lines and anonymous document drops. You can find them all at jsonline.com/tips.

An earlier version of Public Investigator proved to be too successful for its own good! It launched in 2007 with reporters Raquel Rutledge and Ellen Gabler. They ran down tips and wrote stories that helped, for example, save the house of a man the city was foreclosing on because a van parked in his driveway had expired license plates. They exposed an unscrupulous furniture store owner who would take advance payments from customers, close his store before delivering the goods, then reopen elsewhere under a new name. They tested beer tap lines in local taverns and found some caked with bacteria because, unlike in most states, no law required establishments to clean their keg lines.

Eventually, they received tips that led to huge investigations. Rutledge, for instance, exposed massive fraud in the state’s subsidized childcare program, saving taxpayers tens of millions of dollars and winning the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting with “Cashing in on Kids.” Gabler led the data reporting for our 2013 “Deadly Delays” investigation, based on a tip from a doctor, that led to life-saving improvements in the timeliness of newborn screening test processes across the nation. (Gabler also was on the New York Times team that won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service for its reporting on sexual harassment and abuse — a team co-led by another Journal Sentinel alum, Megan Twohey.)

“It always amazes me that stories that come from a tip from one person, about something that happened to them, can often impact far more people than you might think at first blush,” Rutledge says.

This time around, we aim to employ a swarm of skilled reporters from across the USA TODAY Wisconsin network tracking down tips. That way, if one or two wind up working on long-term investigations, the Public Investigator will  continue bringing stories to light week after week.

So, please, if you see something that needs to be addressed, let us know.