How DontComply works

We track government corruption and overreach at the federal, state and local level, regardless of party.

How stories are made

Automated bots watch government and news sources, pick out leads about misconduct by public officials or agencies, and research each one. AI drafts a short report and pulls out the data points that make it searchable: who, where, when, how much and which agency.

Sources

Every story links to its sources. We mark government documents and court records as primary sources. A citation only reaches a story if it came back from the research itself.

Legal status

Each story and each named person carries a status: alleged, under investigation, official finding, charged, settled, convicted, acquitted or dismissed. An allegation or a charge is not proof of guilt, and everyone is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. Officials marked "Agency official" are named because of their role, and no wrongdoing by them is alleged in that story.

Who we name

We name public officials, government employees and contractors acting in that role, and people publicly charged in a matter. We don't name victims, witnesses or relatives.

Reader submissions

Anyone can submit a link. We write only from the linked source, a reader's note is never treated as a source, and an editor reviews every submission before it's published.

Corrections

If we got something wrong, or a case has changed, tell us at corrections@dontcomply.com. Corrections appear at the top of the story.