WBEZ has won two national Murrow Awards, in the investigative reporting and hard news categories, for coverage of widespread sexual harassment, abuse and assault involving Chicago Park District lifeguards.

The prizes honored stories last year by Dan Mihalopoulos, a reporter on WBEZ’s Government & Politics Team. Alex Keefe and Angela Rozas O’Toole edited the stories.

WBEZ’s coverage prompted the resignations of the park district’s longtime chief executive and board president, and Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the new leaders she appointed for the parks have promised a series of reforms. In addition, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx opened an ongoing criminal investigation into the park district’s handling of the matter, and two lifeguards supervisors have been charged with sex crimes.

In April 2021, Mihalopoulos obtained a ream of confidential documents about Chicago’s lifeguard program. The contents described how the park district’s inspector general secretly had been conducting a “broad investigation” into complaints that dozens of workers at the city’s beaches and pools regularly committed “sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, workplace violence and other criminal acts” against young employees — some of them minors.

The first story WBEZ broke in this investigation showed the park district’s internal watchdog had corroborated accusations of sexual misconduct against three senior lifeguards who allegedly preyed on younger female employees, including the attempted rape of a 16-year-old girl.

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During the investigation that followed, Mihalopoulos conducted dozens of interviews with women who came forward to tell about the abuse they endured.

“We could not have done these stories without the trust of the women who served as lifeguards and contacted us, to speak out courageously about what they experienced at the beaches and pools,” Mihalopoulos said.

WBEZ worked to respect the former lifeguards’ trauma and experiences.

“It was important to listen to the lifeguards and an honor to be trusted with their stories,” Mihalopoulos said. “We hope we also did our part as journalists to hold public officials accountable. Our reporting was strongly supported by the station — including open records lawsuits against the mayor’s office and the Chicago Park District.”

Mihalopoulos’s work on the lifeguard investigations also won the Chicago Headline Club’s Watchdog Award for public interest journalism and the Richard R. Driehaus Foundation Award for Investigative Reporting from the Better Government Association.

This is the second time in three years WBEZ has received the National Murrow Award for investigative reporting by a large-market radio station, having won in 2020 for a two-part story about video gambling done in partnership with ProPublica Illinois.

Named in honor of legendary broadcaster Edward R. Murrow, the awards recognize achievement in radio, TV and digital media. The 2022 National Murrow Awards will be presented at a gala in New York on Oct. 10.

“It is an important part of the station’s mission to do accountability journalism which comforts those who have survived this kind of misconduct and brings about change, so that the culture of misogyny and abuse that we exposed can end finally,” Mihalopoulos said.

Bianca Cseke is a digital producer at WBEZ. Follow her @biancacseke1.