Editor’s note: Reposting on September 15 because a) It’s my birthday! And b) We are halfway through this month-long fund drive and really appreciate everyone who has contributed so far to help us make this new position happen! But we need some more support, so if you’ve been thinking about donating to PubliCola, now would be a great time. Thanks! – Erica

By Erica C. Barnett

I’m going to keep this one short and sweet: PubliCola has an exciting opportunity to expand our in-depth, feature-length coverage of policing and police accountability, criminal justice, and the courts, thanks to a generous donor who has agreed to MATCH OUR FUNDRAISING this month.

In other words: Every dollar we receive in the form of individual contributions and new monthly subscriptions this month will help us pay a feature writer to go deep on stories that you won’t get in mainstream news outlets. Stories like:

Our ongoing series of in-depth stories about the killing of a young student by a speeding SPD officer;

The story of one man whose life was upended by the city attorney’s crackdown on “organized retail theft”;

Our feature about the city attorney’s decision to end community court, an alternative to mainstream prosecution for low-level offenders;

And our stories about internal issues at SPD, such as this piece about how officers accused of domestic violence generally keep their jobs.

If you want to see more of this coverage by a dedicated reporter whose only job here will be writing in-depth stories about these issues, help us make it happen by making a one-time or sustaining monthly contribution now.

If you’ve been meaning to support PubliCola but haven’t gotten around to it, please do it this month, when your donation will be matched to help us pay for this important coverage.

If you’ve been on the fence, hop off and join your fellow PubliCola readers by supporting the work you read every day.

As we say around here a lot, PubliCola only exists because readers make it exist.

Without your support—and specifically, without additional support when we make an extra push to expand our coverage, as we’re doing now—PubliCola wouldn’t be the thriving, fully independent publication it is today. And that means that many of the stories we cover would simply get ignored.

There’s never been a better time to contribute than right now, as you’re reading this. Just click right here.

Thanks in advance for your support.