Best Whistle-Blower
Jeff White
Veteran Austin Police Department Detective Jeff White has gone where no APD officer has gone before: He filed a whistle-blower lawsuit against the department in connection with the infamous mid-Nineties Mala Sangre scandal and has stuck with it – through all of the stress and future career uncertainty that comes with it. Still, he's hanging in there. White's fellow officers admire his stamina and, quite frankly, his balls for trying to force the city and the police department to acknowledge and confront its skeletons. Whether city leaders will actually face the elephant and call it out remains to be seen. If they don't they'll lose the opportunity White offered and have only themselves to blame.