Robert Rogers of the San Bernardino County Sun has won the Al Nakkula Award for Police Reporting for his coverage of gang violence and efforts to combat it in San Bernardino. The judges said Rogers’ work “takes readers inside neighborhoods where residents prepare for gunshots as a part of their daily routine, (giving) context to crime in a city ranked among the top 25 most dangerous in the United States.”
The award, sponsored by the University of Colorado School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Press Club, is a top honor for police and crime reporting in the United States. Rogers, 27, is a 2005 graduate of Cal State Fullerton. Honorable-mention awards went to Natalie Pompilio, former police reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Phillip Reese of The Sacramento Bee.