The Denver Press Club named Gina Barton, law enforcement investigative reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, winner of the 2012 Al Nakkula Award for Police Reporting. The award is named for the late Al Nakkula, a 46-year legendary police reporter of the Rocky Mountain News, and is sponsored by the press club and the Colorado University School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and the DPC.
“Gina Barton demonstrated the kind of bulldog reporting that personifies what Nak was all about,” said Tustin Amole, a judge in this year's contest. “She spent two years scouring records and tracking down victims and witnesses to reveal that the same people the public trusted to protect and serve them, were themselves guilty of criminal behavior. Her work not only represents excellent journalism, but personifies the kind of fearlessness needed to investigate those who hold positions of power.” In February, Barton won one of the annual John Jay College/Harry Frank Guggenheim Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting awards for “Both Sides of the Law,” a multi-part series about lawbreakers on the Milwaukee police force.