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Connecticut has a statute that allows towing companies to sell people’s cars after 15 days if the tower deems the car’s value to be $1,500 or less. Credit: Anuj Shrestha / Special to ProPublica

The Connecticut Mirror and ProPublica were named as finalists in the 2025 Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Journalism for “On the Hook,” a joint investigation into how Connecticut’s towing practices had come to favor tow companies at the expense of low-income residents.

“On the Hook” found that companies were towing cars and then selling them within 15 days, one of the country’s shortest turnaround times. The investigation also found that towing companies were frequently undervaluing cars, allowing them to sell them faster; that some companies refused to take credit card payments; and that they had held on to personal belongings as leverage to collect fees.

Immediately following its publication, the state Department of Motor Vehicles said it was reviewing towing practices and lawmakers proposed overhauls to the state’s towing laws, which passed later that year with bipartisan support.

“Through painstaking data reporting and sensitive interviews, the Mirror and ProPublica exposed abuse of power, financial malfeasance and lack of oversight by the state DMV,” said Taylor Award judge Linda Robertson, a reporter at the Miami Herald. “The impact of the project was immediate, prompting a bipartisan effort by state legislators to overhaul towing laws — a true example of David vs. Goliath eye-opening journalism.”

CT Mirror Investigative Reporter Dave Altimari, Housing & Children’s Issues Reporter Ginny Monk, former CT Mirror Data Reporter José Luis Martínez and former CT Mirror Photojournalist Shahrzad Rasekh worked on the project, as did ProPublica Data Reporters Sophie Chou and Haru Coryne, Data Reporting Fellow Ken B. Morales and Engagement Reporter Asia Fields.

The Taylor Award is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. It is designed to encourage fairness in news coverage and was established by members of the Taylor family, who published The Boston Globe from 1872 to 1999.

“We’re honored to be recognized by the Nieman Foundation as finalists for the Taylor Family Fairness Award alongside some of the country’s most respected news organizations,” said CT Mirror Executive Editor Elizabeth Hamilton. “This award reflects the extraordinary work of our journalists and our partners at ProPublica, and the power of deeply reported accountability journalism to produce real change.”

The Miami Herald and The Tampa Bay Times won the 2025 Taylor Award for “Alligator Alcatraz.” The four-part series revealed that Florida’s controversial “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center, which government officials said would only be used to hold the “worst of the worst,” was actually holding hundreds of migrants who faced no criminal charges in the United States and had the legal right to remain in the country while their immigration cases were processed.

The award’s other 2025 finalist was The New York Times for “Exposed and Expendable,” an investigation by reporter Hannah Dreier, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, that outlined how a U.S. Forest Service ban on masks for firefighters led to serious illnesses and premature deaths from toxic smoke.

As manager of audience engagement, Gabby is responsible for CT Mirror’s digital growth. She manages our website, newsletters, search engine optimization, CT Mirror Explains product, on-site marketing, social media channels and internal data analysis. Gabby previously worked as a reporter on Patch.com’s Connecticut team and as an associate editor at The Woonsocket Call in Rhode Island. She is a Connecticut native who holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from UConn and is pursuing a master’s degree in integrated marketing communications from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.