Submit a Tip
Confidential channel for reporting concerns about Texas local government compliance, expenditures, and conduct.
How to Reach Us
Submit tips, supporting documents, and leads to the address below. All correspondence is reviewed by Watchtower’s editorial team and treated as confidential.
[email protected]An interactive submission form is in development. Until it is available, email remains the most direct intake channel.
What Kinds of Information Are Useful
The most actionable tips include supporting documentation. Useful materials include:
- City council agendas, minutes, and meeting packets
- Contracts, invoices, or financial records
- Public records obtained through open records requests
- Dates, names, and descriptions of specific incidents
- Screenshots of official communications or social media posts
Submissions without complete documentation are still valuable. A specific date, location, or set of names provides a starting point for further research and corroboration.
Confidentiality
Source protection is a core editorial standard. Watchtower does not disclose the identity of confidential sources without explicit, written permission. Sources who request anonymity will not be identified in any published work.
Information that cannot be independently verified through public records or other primary sources will not be published. A tip may inform a public records request or other reporting work, but the contributor’s identity remains protected throughout the process.
All correspondence sent to [email protected] is reviewed by Watchtower’s editorial team and held to standard source-protection practice.
How Your Tip Is Handled
Every submission is reviewed by Watchtower’s editorial team. Submissions are assessed against the public record, cross-referenced against existing investigative work, and evaluated for whether further reporting is warranted. Follow-up activity may include filing additional public records requests, attending public meetings, or conducting interviews.
Not every submission results in a published article. Submissions that do not lead directly to a story frequently provide essential context for ongoing or future reporting and remain on file accordingly.
For background on Watchtower’s editorial standards and coverage areas, visit the About page.