In a joint national investigation, ColorLines and The Chicago Reporter found that Blacks are overrepresented and Latinos are a rising number of those fatally shot by police.  The report raises serious issues about whether police departments across America are doing enough to identify and weed out bad cops.

The Watchdog Award honors Chicago area news reporting that calls attention to situations in which the public is being harmed or poorly served, and award is explicitly designed to encourage stories that stick up for the everyday person.  The award was presented to ARC on April 25, 2008, at the Intercontinental Hotel during the Chicago Headline Club's annual Peter Lisagor Awards for Exemplary Journalism, which honors the best Chicago-area reporting in print, broadcast and online media.

The Watchdog Award is sponsored by the Richard H. Dreihaus Foundation and includes a cash prize of $1,500. The 2008 judges were: Tony Noce, retired, formerly executive producer of WGN-TV; Jay Stewart, executive director of the Better Government Association; Allen Pusey, managing editor of the ABA Journal; and Meg Tebo, adjunct professor of journalism at Columbia College Chicago and a past Headline Club president.