Field Kit

Six tools for public-program investigations

One to find what a state does and does not require, one to read a registry, one to hold every claim to a source, one to prove your footage is untouched, one to take a report from someone who can’t use their name, and one to watch the laws that decide whether any of it stays legal.

The record is the story. Keep the record.

Six tools for reporting on how public money is spent: one to find what a state does and does not require, one to read a registry, one to hold every claim to a source, one to prove your footage is untouched, one to take a report from someone who can't use their name, and one to watch the laws that decide whether any of it stays legal.

Grid 01Public Program IntegrityWhat each state requires before it pays, and what it does after. 51 jurisdictions, 34 fields. Tool 02Provider Cluster ScreeningLoad a licensing registry, group records that share an address, draft the records request. Tool 03Claim LedgerEvery claim in a piece, its timecode, its source, and whether the named subject was asked.

Tool 04Footage SealFingerprint raw files at capture. Hand anyone the receipt and let them check it themselves. Tool 05Protected Tip IntakeA report form that never asks who you are, plus the official channels that also have jurisdiction. Watch 06Press Freedom Bill WatchBills that change what a reporter may record, ask, publish, or request.

How they fit together

A tip arrives with no name attached (05). The registry shows nine licenses at one suite number (02). The grid says this state never required a site visit before the first payment, and publishes no inspection counts (01). You go there, and the raw files are sealed the same night (04). Every number that ends up in the piece has a record behind it and every business named was asked to answer (03). And when a bill appears afterward that would make the next one harder, it is already being tracked (06).

Two rules the tools are built around

A pattern is a reason to pull records, not a finding. Shared addresses, fast license growth and repeated owner names are all lawful and common. None of these tools produce a score or a verdict, because a score invites publishing an inference as if it were a fact.

What is open gets counted. Every unfilled cell shows as a number instead of a blank. A half-filled grid published honestly is worth more than a full one nobody can check.