Before he was an investigative reporter, or a reporter at all, Andrew Ford loved to write. He wrote poetry, even an entire one-act play, and aspired to be a creative writer.
But his path to investigative reporting was marked not just by creative writing but also by analysis: studying the reporting process, practicing the technical work of video production, learning mathematics for data analysis.
By the time he joined The Arizona Republic this year as a full-time investigative reporter, Ford had covered the police beat in two other states, written about child welfare and abuse, interviewed a bank robber from prison and examined police unions for a national investigative effort that earned him a finalist spot for the prestigious Livingston Award.
“I did things the hard way,” he says now. And while he still hasn’t gone full circle to be a creative writer or a playwright, he’s found that the investigative process teaches many of the same things: Hearing the way “real people talk.” Examining the complex lives of people who are more than just a single headline or criminal conviction.
“Just understanding how society and government work,” Ford says. “I don’t know of another occupation where you get such broad exposure to society.”
Ford grew up in a family that followed jobs from the Northeast to the Southeast to Belgium and back to the Midwest, later landing in Florida for high school — where he studied theater and tried his hand as a playwright — and college. His writing…
