Dave Savini
Award-winning Chicago journalist Dave Savini is an investigative reporter for CBS News Chicago. His stories break ground, create change and news laws, and a positive impact on the community.
Savini joined CBS News Chicago in 2005 prior after beginning his career in Chicago in 1993 at NBC5.
Savini's investigative reporting has been honored with prestigious journalism awards including a Peabody Award, duPont-Columbia Award, national Emmy Award, five national Murrow Awards, Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, two NABJ Awards and 27 regional Emmys.
Savini tackles some of the most complex, challenging and difficult stories to tell, tirelessly exposing public corruption, holding elected officials, government workers, police, hospitals, nursing homes, crematories, funeral homes, DCFS and environmental polluters accountable.
Savini and CBS News Chicago's team of investigative producers have continuously dedicated their efforts to reporting on impactful law changing stories that often lead to the demand for accountability and oversight. Savini's investigation "unWarranted" has been honored with the 2019 Peabody, 2019 Murrow and 2019 IRE Award, and the 2019 NABJ Salute to Excellence Award.
The series also exposed a disturbing pattern of wrong police raids in Chicago's primarily Black and Latino neighborhoods. It led to a new state law, The Peter Mendez Act, requiring training for police officers who may encounter children in traumatic situations like a raid.
Savini's investigation into the wrong police raid on Anjanette Young's home stunned the nation with the way she was mistreated and held naked at gunpoint. He broke the story locally and nationally on the network's CBS Morning Show and CBS Evening News. The story led to new search warrant policy and procedures in Chicago.
Savini won the national Murrow Award and 2021 Emmy for his series "Just 10 Years Old," a riveting report about the Illinois Department of Family and Children's Service and Chicago Police Department. He revealed human trafficking of a little girl whose rapists walked free despite positive matches to rape kits that were processed but left sitting in limbo because of police mismanagement.
In 2018 Savini began exposing decades-old EPA records revealing state regulators warned Willowbrook-based Sterigenics, a medical supply sterilization company, of toxic emissions containing the cancer-causing chemical ethylene oxide. His probe into Sterigenics led to a new law after several whistleblowers came forward say the company knew it was releasing ethylene oxide for decades. In 2019 the Matt Haller Act became law, putting limits on ETO emissions. The series won a 2019 regional Murrow and the 2019 regional Emmy for Investigative Series.
Savini's national awards also include a 2008 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for his investigation exposing 4,000 missing or lost security badges and other holes in security at O'Hare International Airport. The duPont Award is broadcast's equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize and also decided by a panel of judges at Columbia University in New York.
Prior to working in Chicago, Savini worked at WROC-TV in Rochester, New York as an anchor and investigative reporter. Before that, he was the Raleigh bureau chief at WNCT-TV in Greenville, North Carolina (1990-92). He began his career as a weekend anchor and investigative reporter at WHIZ-TV in Zanesville, Ohio. Savini's fascination with broadcast journalism and investigative reporting began when he worked as an intern in WMAQ's investigative unit in 1987
Savini has also competed in triathlons, a half ironman, and is a certified scuba diver. He was born and raised in Chicago and is a 1985 graduate of Weber High School. He went on to earn a B.A. in Communications from the University of Dayton in 1989 and was a member of the Dayton Flyers Football team. He and his wife Shannon have seven children. He volunteers for dozens of charitable and non-profit organizations. Dave often donates his time as an emcee working to raise funds and awareness for pediatric brain cancer research, organ donation, military veteran groups, youth groups, domestic violence victims, food pantries and homeless shelters.