Mike Hayes joins WNYC / Gothamist’s newsroom

Read more in this note from Louis C. Hochman, New Jersey and Suburbs Editor

I’m excited to announce that Mike Hayes is joining the newsroom as a reporter on the New Jersey and Suburbs team.

Mike’s work will focus on affordability and equity around topics including the workforce, access to housing, immigration, and education policy.

Mike brings more than a dozen years experience as a reporter and editor, with particular adeptness in breaking news, police accountability, and data privacy. He’s the author of “The Secret Files: Bill De Blasio, The NYPD, and The Broken Promises of Police Reform,” which delved into how the New York Police Department allowed hundreds of officers with a history of misconduct to remain on the force — and how efforts to reform the department fell flat.

Mike recently authored a multi-part investigation for ProPublica, which revealed that the NYPD’s internal investigators disregarded evidence damaging to officers who killed people in the line of duty. He’s investigated police lawsuit settlements that cost taxpayers more than $1 billion, the ways law enforcement agencies use cell-phone cracking software to obtain evidence and the secret use of facial recognition by police.

Mike was Buzzfeed’s first social media editor, and is a former senior reporter for Buzzfeed News. He’s written hundreds of articles for CNN’s Live News team on topics including both of former President Donald Trump’s impeachments; the trials of Derek Chauvin, Kyle Rittenhouse, and the killers of Ahmaud Arbery; and Russia’s war in Ukraine. His work has appeared in ProPublica, HuffPost CNN.com, The Appeal, and Gothamist.

In 2019, Mike was a finalist for both the Livingston Award for Young Journalists and Deadline Club Award for his investigative reporting on the NYPD’s secret disciplinary files.

Mike lives in New Jersey with his wife, Ryan, and their three sons, Caleb, Elliott, and Gannon.

We’re excited to have Mike bring his considerable experience and investigative chops to the WNYC / Gothamist newsroom. He starts next Monday, November 27. I hope you’ll join me in giving him a warm welcome.