Madison Hopkins

Madison Hopkins is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist with the Illinois Answers Project, the nonprofit newsroom arm of the Better Government Association. Her past work includes reporting for The Kansas City Beacon and ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network. Hopkins holds degrees from San Diego State University and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

A police camera attached to a black light pole, at left, watches over the intersection of Chicago and Central Park avenues, one of the oldest camera locations in the city. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Chicago police bet big on pricey surveillance cameras. Two decades later, the devices do little to solve most crimes.

September 29, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

While installing thousands of police cameras has undoubtedly helped catch criminals and solve cases, Chicago’s ever-growing surveillance system has yet to become the crime-fighting panacea predicted 20 years ago.

Firefighters at the scene of the blaze in a courtyard apartment building.

The Failures Before the Fires: Read the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation

June 14, 2024 at 6:47 p.m.

This yearlong investigation, a collaboration between the Chicago Tribune and the Better Government Association, revealed that at least 61 people died in residential fires in Chicago where officials were aware...

Mayor Lori Lightfoot put out a list of building safety ‘scofflaws.’ Only 98 properties are on it.

July 29, 2024 at 12:09 p.m.

Chicago's new "scofflaw list" of 98 unsafe buildings excludes hundreds of properties where city officials found life-threatening housing violations, an investigation by the Tribune and the Better Government Association has...

People attend a candlelight vigil for Yafet Solomon, 9, who died in a fire in the basement of 708 Kennedy St. in Washington, D.C., in 2019. The fatal fire prompted the city to clarify its standards for residential inspections.

Scheduled inspections. Licensing landlords. A ‘fix-it’ court. Here are 9 things Chicago could do to help keep renters safe from fires.

June 14, 2024 at 6:47 p.m.

In the late '90s, five children died in Los Angeles when a fire tore through an illegal garage apartment. Soon after, the mayor started one of the first programs in...

Buildings Commissioner Matthew Beaudet inspects a residential property with code violations March 3, 2021, in the Austin neighborhood.

Advocates to Lightfoot: Fatal fires investigation shows Chicago building safety policies need fixing

June 14, 2024 at 6:47 p.m.

Tenant advocates and public officials are calling on Mayor Lori Lightfoot to hold landlords more accountable and establish clear rules on how the city handles housing safety complaints after a...

Mourners line up outside Our Lady of Angels Church for the funeral for three nuns Dec. 4, 1958. Sisters Mary St. Canice Lyng, 44, Mary Seraphica Kelley, 43, and Mary Clare Therese Champagne, 26, died in the fire at Our Lady of the Angels grade school on Dec. 1 in Chicago.

Lessons unheeded: Over and over, Chicago fails to learn from fatal fires

June 14, 2024 at 6:47 p.m.

When a Chicago fire makes headlines, politicians often push for new safety standards. Sometimes these reforms made life safer, but frequently the city faltered in the face of opposition and...

Eric Patton Smith poses for a portrait in Lake Meadows Park in the Bronzeville neighborhood Thursday Aug. 13, 2020, in Chicago. Smith's daughter, 7-year-old Eri'ana Patton Smith, was the youngest of four children killed in 2014 when a fire erupted in her mother's apartment building in the Roseland neighborhood. Now Smith wears a locket with a photo of his daughter Eri'ana. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

Deadly Fires, Broken Promises: Chicago’s political leaders fail to enact safety rules that stick

June 14, 2024 at 6:47 p.m.

After a fire killed four children in a South Side apartment building with known fire safety problems, indignant politicians again vowed consequences for landlords who fail to keep tenants safe....

The Failures Before the Fires: How we reported this story

June 14, 2024 at 6:47 p.m.

To report this series, the BGA and the Tribune first identified every fatal fire that occurred in a residential building in Chicago from 2014 through 2019. Although the Chicago Fire...

The Failures Before the Fires: In six years, 61 people died in Chicago buildings where the city knew of fire safety issues

June 14, 2024 at 6:47 p.m.

The fire that killed four of Shamaya Coleman's children raced through their South Side building within minutes. But it was a tragedy years in the making. It began before the...

Shamaya Coleman dentro de su hogar en el barrio de East Chatham en Chicago en agosto. Cuatro de sus hijos murieron en el 2014 tras incendio en su apartamento de Roseland.

Fuego y fracaso: Ellos murieron en edificios que la ciudad sabía que eran trampas de fuego

April 24, 2021 at 1:59 a.m.

By Madison Hopkins | Better Government Association and Cecilia Reyes | Chicago Tribune Publicado el 23 de abril, 2021 El incendio que mató a cuatro de los hijos de Shamaya...

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