Mathew Ursua
Consultant, Photographer, and Writer in United States
First Responder Photographer • Media Innovator • Transparency Advocate
I built a historic portfolio as the first to bring LA-style stringer photography to Honolulu, filling a void no one else saw. At a time when breaking news imagery was either ignored by mainstream media or tightly controlled by government courtesy photos, I delivered something different: authentic, unfiltered, and immediate coverage of police, fire, and EMS response on Oʻahu.
My work, often licensed under Creative Commons, gave independent editorial outlets the power to illustrate their First Amendment-protected reporting—stories that mainstream, access-driven media outlets refused to touch. By supplying relevant and current imagery outside of government or corporate filters, I helped elevate voices that questioned authority and disrupted the status quo.
Today, this mission is more urgent than ever. We are living through an era of shrinking transparency in public safety communications. Across the country, municipalities—Honolulu included—are moving to AES-256 encrypted P25 systems, locking out the press and public under the banner of “interoperability” and “security,” thanks to federally funded Motorola upgrades. These shifts threaten the ability of independent journalists to monitor dispatch channels, hold first responders accountable, and tell the real story behind official narratives.
That’s why I advocate not just for my own legitimacy as a journalist, but for the right of all independent media voices to maintain access. Governing bodies like the Honolulu City Council must recognize the essential role people like me play: documenting, reporting, and bearing witness when others won’t.
I’m Mathew Ursua—stringer, storyteller, and transparency advocate—working at the intersection of journalism, photography, and public accountability.
I am also writing a memoir about the three years I spent inside Pahrump’s East Siri Lane Nye County Detention Center, on charges born from a sheriff’s office that was among the first to embrace the spectacle of turning its deputies into live-action cable reality TV stars—sold to the public and officials as a recruiting tactic. That experience taught me a hard lesson: as a freelance photographer chasing new cops in new uniforms across rural Nevada, from NCSO, to Sheriff Lombardo’s LVMPD (before he became governor), you either need deep pockets or broad public support to survive the fight. I witnessed firsthand as LVMPD moved to encrypt its entire P25 radio system, shutting down all 10 area-command dispatches from the press and public. The result was an undeniable drop in the quality of media coverage, but Las Vegas’ celebrity-obsessed reporters in TV and print didn’t fight back; their corporate owners adjusted to the new status quo instead of challenging it in court. In the process, the mainstream became complicit in erasing a vital transparency tool—the police scanner—while celebrating their “verified” status on social media. To me, those checkmarks were not marks of merit, but badges of submission to Homeland Security talking points, a betrayal of the press’s role as a watchdog.
In the meantime, I am also fundraising to deliver critical blows to the enemies of transparency, the same way President Trump can skirt out of everything and pardon himself—because that’s what money can buy—through my book Comeback of the Century. Available in both softcover and eBook, the book can be purchased at major retailers including Amazon. Comeback of the Century is more than a memoir—it’s a call to action for supporters to help me fight back against systemic secrecy, censorship, and the erosion of press freedom.