Josiah Bates
Journalist | Author | Professor
Josiah Bates is an award-winning journalist, author, and journalism professor whose reporting explores gun violence, policing, and the systems shaping violence in American cities.
As a reporter at The Trace, he covers gun violence across the Great Lakes region, bringing attention to the people, communities, and institutions behind some of America's most pressing public safety issues.
His work has earned multiple New York Press Club awards, along with a finalist nomination for the Deadline Club Award for Magazine Investigative Reporting. His journalism has also appeared in TIME, ABC News, NBC News, and other prominent publications.
In Scorpions in the Grass, Bates brings his rigorous reporting and powerful storytelling to the story of Tyre Nichols and the rise of elite police units across America, examining the broader consequences of policing practices and the urgent need for accountability.
He is also the author of In These Streets: Reporting from the Front Lines of Inner-City Gun Violence. Originally from Brownsville, Bates is now based in Michigan.
Photo credit: Kiera Wood
A Story of Power, Policing, and the Fight for Accountability
Scorpions in the Grass: A Murder in Memphis and the Rise of Elite Police Units on America's Streets by Josiah Bates is a deeply reported investigation into the troubling history of specialized police units and their devastating impact on American communities.
At the center of the book is the tragic death of Tyre Nichols, a twenty-nine-year-old man who was brutally beaten by members of Memphis's SCORPION unit following a traffic stop in January 2023. His death sparked nationwide outrage and renewed questions about police accountability, public safety, and the purpose of elite law enforcement task forces.
Through extensive on-the-ground reporting, intimate accounts from family and friends, and a sweeping historical investigation, Bates traces the emergence and expansion of these specialized units—from 1970s Detroit to cities including New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Portland.
The book reveals how aggressive policing strategies, limited oversight, and a culture of impunity have shaped the experiences of Black and Brown communities across the country.
More than an account of one devastating tragedy, Scorpions in the Grass examines a larger system of policing and challenges readers to confront a difficult question: Who are these units really meant to protect?
A powerful work of investigative journalism that challenges the way we understand policing, accountability, and public safety in America.
What Readers & Critics Are Saying
Powerful words from respected voices in law, journalism, and civil rights.
A Nuanced Look at Policing and Reform
“An intimate portrait of Tyre Nichols's life and death alongside a propulsive telling of the rise of anti-crime 'elite' police units across the country, and their bull-in-a-china-shop approach to public safety. Bates's nuanced telling of the push and pull of local and national police reform politics illuminates a little-known but critically important part of the story.”
Joanna Schwartz
Professor of Law and Author of Shielded
A Powerful Call for Justice and Accountability
“Josiah Bates exposes what I’ve seen from both sides of the courtroom: when a police unit answers to no one, the community pays in blood. Scorpions in the Grass is essential reading for anyone who believes accountability is not optional.”
Jarrett Adams
Exoneree, Civil Rights Attorney, and Author of Redeeming Justice
A Landmark Work of Journalism and Humanity
“Scorpions in the Grass by Josiah Bates is a feat of journalism and humanity. Bates delivers a story that will horrify: how police task forces with names like REDRUM and SCORPIONS have risen in communities across the U.S. with devastating and deadly consequences for untold numbers of Americans. At its core, it’s an urgent and engrossing narrative that keeps your jaw on the floor. It’s a story about what has happened—and continues to happen—when bands of cops meant to stamp out crime start to look like criminals themselves. With incisive observations drawn from rich interviews, this landmark book exposes in powerful detail how it’s not just bad apples spoiling these bunches—it’s bad ideas. Scorpions in the Grass is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what policing in this country so-often really looks like: shadowy bands of accountability-free cops hunting the streets for people to target for searches, interrogations, and violence.”
Joshua Sharpe
Journalist and Author of The Man No One Believed: The Untold Story of the Georgia Church Murders
© 2026 Josiah Bates. All rights reserved.