Gary Harki is an investigative reporter covering criminal justice for Spotlight PA. His stories on police and jails have sparked change in Virginia, where he worked at The Virginian-Pilot and West Virginia, where he worked at The Charleston Gazette. A former Livingston Award finalist, he spent a year in Marquette University’s O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism reporting on the jailing of people with mental illness. In 2019 he won the Al Nakkula Award, which honors outstanding police reporting. Gary’s reporting on a regional jail in Virginia led to a U.S. Justice Department investigation into the jail’s treatment of people housed there. His investigation into the strip search of an 8-year-old girl by officers with the Virginia Department of Corrections led to the suspension and review of the policy and ultimately to the creation of several laws to prevent such practices in the future.