Meg O’Connor

I'm a reporter from New York currently living in Los Angeles. Before that, I lived in Phoenix for three years and covered local law enforcement agencies for Phoenix New Times and The Appeal. I love hiking, baking, and writing stories that help people. Journalism that shines a spotlight on injustice—instead of upholding the status quo—is important to me.

My stories have gotten corrupt public officials fired and changed policies at some of the largest police departments in the country. In 2018, I documented instances in which NYPD detectives pressured rape victims into signing a form that closed their case against their will. This story led the chief of the sex crimes division to change the form so it could no longer be misused in this way.

I continued to report on issues at the NYPD's Special Victims Division (SVD) over the years. In 2019, I obtained data showing that the NYPD closed nearly 500 rape cases—25 percent of all rapes reported that year—due to what police alleged was lack of participation from rape victims. In December 2022, I published an investigation showing that structural problems created by the NYPD had worsened significantly in recent years. In multiple cases, women were assaulted and children were killed after detectives failed to appropriately investigate reports of rape or abuse.

Two months after this story, the NYPD transferred the SVD’s commander, Mike King, out of the division. In May, the NYPD commissioner told City Council members that she introduced a new policy to reduce turnover and promote detectives within the SVD—something my reporting specifically identified as an issue within the division. Then in June, the Department of Justice announced it was launching an investigation into the Special Victims Division, citing “concerning information from a variety of sources of historical issues about the way the Special Victims Division has conducted its investigations for many years.”

My reporting on the NYPD’s Special Victims Division for The Appeal was awarded an Investigative Journalism Award from the Institute for Nonprofit News. It was also featured on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO and The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC.