We’re part of a team of USA TODAY Network reporters who investigated police officers who were able to keep their jobs or find new ones despite repeated, serious violations. So far, we’ve identified 85,000 officers investigated for misconduct. Ask ...

You say 85,000 officers have been investigated for misconduct or disciplined across the country. How do you define misconduct - are we talking about criminal violations or simply violating a departmental regulation? How many of those 85,000 officers were found to have not done anything wrong?

So the 85,000 officers were investigated by their respective state agency for violations ranging from insubordination to felony convictions. We made no value judgments as to what constituted misconduct - we left that up to the states. It wound up that we found 30,000 plus officers were decertified - basically lost their license to be a cop. About 10 percent of those were for drug or alcohol abuse, another 10 percent were for domestic abuse issues, but a good percentage were for false reporting or perjury. Thanks for the question. - James

85,000 officers were investigated by their respective state agency for violations ranging from insubordination to felony convictions

You really should break out that data better. It's really disingenous.

I talked back to my boss in a deragatory tone vs. I planted heroin on someone and /u/usatoday is going to treat it like it's the same thing.

About 10 percent of those were for drug or alcohol abuse, another 10 percent were for domestic abuse issues, but a good percentage were for false reporting or perjury.

Disingenuous and downright lazy journalism. They had an agenda to push and just looked for any data to confirm their prejudice.

Just to be clear, we included a chart in our story that broke down the reasons for officer decertification that we could determine from the data we received. We found at least 2,777 cases where officers were decertified for "dishonesty"- related issues -- perjury, false reporting, tampering with evidence or witnesses. That's about 9.1% of the 30,483 decertification cases in our dataset. -- Mark

a good percentage

What's the number, please.

We found at least 2,777 instances where an officer was decertified for "dishonesty"-related charges, including perjury, tampering with evidence or witnesses, or falsifying reports. -- Mark

Thanks.

That's 3.2% for anybody else who doesn't like math.

Actually, it's about 9.1% of the 30,483 officers we have as decertified in our database. -- Mark

3.2% of total officers in the database, 9.1% of those who have been decertified.

You'll want to use the decertified officers as the universe, for now. We haven't looked at all our disciplinary reports with that detail yet. -- Mark

And remember, several states don't do such investigations. That includes California, which has the largest number of police officers in the U.S. So the numbers are limited. That 85,000 includes data from only 44 states. Delaware didn't provide information. - James

Have you looked at other nations, to see how USA compares on police not facing repercussions for misconduct?

That's a great question. To be honest, no we haven't because we've really had our hands full with the huge trove of documents from American agencies. That being said, it is a good idea to compare and see how other nations handle it and what their rates are. We will certainly file that away for a possible story angle. - James

Hey everyone, Eric Litke here from Milwaukee. Excited to tackle your questions in this next hour or so. Remember, you can send any specific tips to us for use in this project at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

How do Police Officers who were involved in a shooting and were found to be in the wrong keep their jobs?

That's a complicated subject. It depends on how "wrong" they were found to be. If internally, they were found to have violated policy, they might get a suspension instead of being fired because of union contract rules. Those negotiated contracts call for arbitration etc. in many cases. There have been many cases of officers being fired for fatal shootings but later reinstated by arbitrators under union rules. - James

In addition, law enforcement is covered by a legal concept called "qualified immunity" where government officials are not liable for mistakes they made "honestly" in the line of duty, or if they don't intentionally break the law or violate someone's rights. - James

Any plans to investigate politicians who break laws and keep their jobs?

We're planning to stick with investigating law enforcement who break laws and keep their jobs, for now. Unless you count county sheriffs as politicians...

What is the worst offense by an officer that you’ve seen get excused in order for them to remain on the job?

I don't know about "worst" but we documented the career of an officer in northeast Ohio. He was fired for a felony conviction but reinstated. He was then fired for alleged perjury but later was again reinstated. He went on to become a police chief elsewhere in a small town: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/04/24/police-officers-police-chiefs-sheriffs-misconduct-criminal-records-database/2214279002/ - James

And we're going to continue digging through the records for more examples. - James

We also found one officer who shot and killed six people over a 10-year period - all determined to be "justifiable" by prosecutors and police review boards. He was able to take a disability retirement from the department. - Mark

How long has it taken to find these 85,000?

We've actually been gathering records on this since early 2017 in one form or another. The 85K out now are just a fraction of what we've assembled and are in the process of cleaning and analyzing. More to come later :-) -Eric

Hey this is James Pilcher from Cincinnati. I worked on all of this, but primarily the story about police chiefs and how they can rise the ranks despite troubled pasts: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/04/24/police-officers-police-chiefs-sheriffs-misconduct-criminal-records-database/2214279002/

Ask me anything!

James, did you uncover any data specific to Cincinnati? We have a long and troubled history of problems in our police department. But I've also had mostly good interactions with our local cops over the years.

Good morning - sorry for the delayed response. We haven't found any specific Cincinnati stories yet, but we do have a lot of data from the department. We are still sifting through. There weren't many if any Cincinnati officers decertified by Ohio in recent years. Although I don't live in Cincinnati, I would agree that my interactions personally have been positive with CPD. I have written about police use of force here locally extensively including this story a few years ago: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/your-watchdog/2017/01/18/enquirer-investigation-no-chargesdiscipline-18-deaths-cincinnati-police-since-2010/96539576/

What is the most common violation you observed?

Additionally, what age were most violators?

With the data we've released covering officer decertifications, we found drugs and alcohol a common problem, along with assaults and violence. In terms of age of most officers, that's harder to determine. While we requested age or DOBs for officers, most state agencies and departments that sent us data did not include that information, or did not have it available. -- Mark

What needs to change so the these police are held accountable?

This is a great question. And one without a simple answer. Some states (California, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island) don't even have a system in place to decertify officers with egregious misconduct. That'd be a basic way to start. And much of the system is cops (or former cops) providing oversight for themselves, which is something experts flag as a problem. This is an area we definitely want to dive into more as our series progresses. -Eric

Some states (California, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island) don't even have a system in place to decertify officers with egregious misconduct.

Are you sure about that?

Here's an example of CHP "removing peace officer powers" from "dozens" of officers suspected of falsifying overtime claims.

NJSP fired or forced to resign 4 officers in 2016 for "misconduct".

Here's Massachusetts SP suspending or arresting 8 officers for falsifying overtime.

No examples of RI police suspending anybody, which is odd though it would be a much smaller police force.

Care to elaborate on your claim?

I’m not the reporters and am only providing my reading into these stories. From what I can tell about the NJ and Mass cases they were fired or arrested however that doesn’t mean they were “decertified” meaning hypothetically they could get a job at another agency. The article about the California case says “removing peace officer powers” from those officers. That could mean decertified or it could mean while they are suspended they have had their badges taken away and do not have the authority of a peace officer. Again theoretically they could go and get a job at another agency.

Your citations were for state troopers being removed by the state agency. The state agency does not remove officers at the local level in California. Same with New Jersey. Those stories and incidents involved state troopers. Neither state has a mechanism to remove local officers. That's not a value judgement as we are a local rule country. - James

Good afternoon! Mark Nichols from USA TODAY here. Glad to be part of the conversation...

What do you think of the Campaign Zero platform? They want to increase accountability in police misconduct cases by:

• Establish a permanent Special Prosecutor's Office at the State level for cases of police violence
• Require independent investigations of all cases where police kill or seriously injure civilians
• Use federal funds to encourage independent investigations and prosecutions
• Lower the standard of proof for Department of Justice civil rights investigations of police officers

Those are all under consideration for sure. But this becomes a political situation as well. As you probably know, the current Justice Department under an order from the previous AG has backed off on such federal investigations into local police. And getting such changes past legislators who tend to back police and police unions is also difficult. - James

This dataset is far bigger than the list of decertification we published last week. Those are only the cases where states took action to remove an officer’s law enforcement certification. In fact, they may not even be all of them given the state of public records compliance in this country. And again, those numbers don't include officers from states from New Jersey, California, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Hawaii is just starting to implement a system, and New York is a few years into their new decertification system.

The USAT database includes hundreds of thousands of additional records, some of which are being processed. The USA TODAY plan is to release groups of data, and underlying records, throughout the course of the year. - James

Wow. Ever got paranoid since starting? Walking around with a recording device and such? Checking for any in your homes?

We did get hung up on and ignored and perhaps lightly threatened along the way, but we're not exactly in a bunker. Maybe a little closer to the speed limit than normal... -Eric

Well, I'm not at a point where I'm "paranoid" about this project. We'll see how it goes....-Mark

How many of those 85,000 officers cited for misconduct have had multiple citations?

We've seen a couple of officers in our database who have been decertified more than once -- in different states. In the data we plan to release later this year dealing with internal affairs investigations, we see numerous officers with multiple "sustained" charges. -- Mark

Thanks for the reply and all the hard work!

In the story about police chiefs, the personnel file of the individual we profiled was the size of a filing box. In addition to being fired twice, he wrecked a police car and had several other violations. - James

At least 85,000 law enforcement officers across the USA have been investigated or disciplined for misconduct

If I go and make a BS complaint because I'm unhappy with receiving a ticket and an investigation takes place does that count towards your stats?

No. These were officers who were legitimately investigated by state officials from 44 different states. If the complaint was baseless, in most cases the complaint was thrown out before an investigation was launched. Thanks for the question. - James

Thank you for your work. This kind of information could be a huge help to public. When do you plan on having the rest of the database put together?

This is definitely a work in progress. We'll have more detailed reporting coming up on the decertified officers listed in the database. Our plan is to release groups of data, and underlying records, throughout the course of the year. We've gathered hundreds of thousands of records that we're still processing and analyzing. -Eric

Investigated for misconduct.. as in a simple report against the officer? I know many officers who have had baseless misconduct charges brought against them. Does your 85,000 include those? Or are all these founded?

The officers in the database we published are only those that have been decertified by their state. In other words there was an allegation that the state oversight agency deemed legitimate and serious enough to take away their ability to be a cop in that state. -Eric

What has the reaction to this remarkable nationwide look been from law enforcement stakeholders and watchdogs?

Always hard to say early on. We're hopeful this raises a red flag for those in charge of hiring cops around the country - a reminder to be diligent in backgrounding because people will be watching and who they hire affects the public trust. -Eric

Thanks for the question! We're hoping that law enforcement agencies will see that we're serious about collecting these records and be more transparent. We've had to sue in many cases for open records that should have been easy to obtain. We're also looking hard at states where there is little to no statewide oversight over policing - including California, where there are the most officers but there is no decertification process. In addition, police officers' personnel files are off limits under open records laws in that state. - James

Hey everybody! Thanks for tuning in - we're wrapping it up. But Mark, Eric and I will be checking back if anyone has a question later. This was fun and enlightening to us. - James

Do you worry about repercussions/vengeance from corrupt police for making this data public?

I would echo Eric's previous statements in that while we've had people yell at us and hang up and fight us legally for the records, there's never been any threats etc. While we might stick closer to the speed limit, we're not exactly sitting in a bunker. - James

Has this resulted in anything yet?

Not really, but I think we're just getting started. It's going to take some time for decision makers to take a look at this and react. In addition, we've got more data etc. to come. - James

Are Police unions too strong? Apart from job protection due to violence, a lot of policemen seem overweight - I am assuming the union protects them from having to pass fitness tests?

That's certainly a hot topic up for debate. We're not getting into the physical fitness aspect, but certainly unions have strong political ties that help create contracts that protect officers. Those protections have led to many reinstatements in very controversial cases in the past. But that is ultimately up to elected officials who agree to these contracts. - James

While going through the records, could you find any similarities behind the justifications for the crimes committed? What do you believe these acts stem from (training, prejudice etc.)?

Good question, but it's real tough to generalize, but we did see some recurring categories of misconduct, stuff like drugs and alcohol, assaults, dishonesty, theft, use of force. And in most cases we're talking about actions that were against policy or ethical norms, but didn't result in criminal charges. -Eric

Did you only look at street cops or did you include any and all people in the police force?

Our data covered any law enforcement officer in 44 states. We also did a story looking at how officers could become chiefs or sheriffs or stay in top roles despite troubled histories. You can look at that here: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/04/24/police-officers-police-chiefs-sheriffs-misconduct-criminal-records-database/2214279002/ - James

How do you investigate which cops let their family commit crimes?

Is there an investigation to determine who’s family?

That's a tough question and issue as one would have to prove the officer "helped" the family commit a crime. We're only starting our investigation with data and documents involving law enforcement directly. But we have seen cases where officers have allegedly covered up for family members - one such officer became a chief and was listed in our story here. His name is Daniel Tindall and he's the first capsule profile in our larger story here: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/04/24/police-officers-police-chiefs-sheriffs-misconduct-criminal-records-database/2214279002/ - James

How do you respond to authoritarians who will justify any brutality dealt out by cops, regardless of how egregious it may be?

I don't know specifically who you are referring to, but such change would probably have to come through the democratic process and voting someone else into those positions. - James

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

The team at /r/usatoday. That's who.

That's why we think journalism is so important. Thanks! -Eric

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

That's high praise indeed. Thank you. - James

Did you notice any geographical trends that stood out? There are pockets notorious for police corruption (e.g. Illinois), but I'd also be interested in rural vs. urban, etc.

Those are great questions. That's part of the analysis that's ongoing on the larger pile of police records that we have that haven't (yet) been publicly released. Hopefully we can answer some of those questions, though any generalizations like that are tricky since the data will always be spotty due to the difficulty getting records -Eric

I would also add that we haven't gotten records from the vast majority of departments in this country. We're at about 800-1000 departments, and there are 18,000 departments nationally. One thing I noticed is that there are small departments that use officers on a part-time basis who may have 2-3 other policing jobs elsewhere. That makes for an interesting and noteworthy dynamic. - James

Were you surprised at the findings?

Good morning. Yes, there were several things we uncovered in our reporting that were surprising. The fact that California, for example, has the most police officers in the country. Yet the state doesn't really regulate policing at all and leaves it to local departments. Secondly, a big surprise for me personally was the way small departments use patchwork scheduling and hiring to keep their policing going. It is not uncommon for an officer to work for 3-4 different departments, all on a part-time basis with no benefits. Rural policing is a major issue that we are going to continue to explore. - James

Why do you think your background checking is more thorough then every department in the country whose professed job is investigating criminal activity?

That question is really the core of why we launched this project. Why SHOULD someone without law enforcement powers be able to get more information that a hiring agency had when making a decision? But that's what we found throughout the country - departments that simply aren't putting in the time to talk to prior employers, pull personnel files and do other due diligence that is typical in most professions. -Eric

In some cases it's lack of effort, in other cases towns are knowingly hiring chiefs with misconduct histories because they still felt that was the best candidate in a shallow pool. The national lack of qualified officers, particularly for openings at small departments with low pay, is a key reason bad cops are getting second and fifth chances. -Eric

Have you guys been harassed or threatened by cops at all?

I'll circle back to an answer from earlier - We did get hung up on and ignored and perhaps lightly threatened along the way, but we're not exactly in a bunker. Maybe a little closer to the speed limit than normal... -Eric

[deleted]

There are about 750,000 police officers in this country and our reporting only showed that fewer than 10 percent were ever investigated for any misconduct. Now, we've only scratched the surface as our data only includes about 10 percent of all officers in the country. That being said - and my colleagues would probably agree with me - the vast majority of police are honest and hard working. The problem is that the current system makes it easy for someone who isn't to stay an officer. - James

So are you doing anything with this data? Is anything of substance going to come of this or will it generate a bit or outrage and then be forgotten because nothing fucking happens? What practical use does all this have?

The project is basically two-pronged - gather the data and expose it to light of data so local reporters, local citizens and hiring agencies have easier access to data that is historically hard to get. But we'll also be unrolling a series of stories analyzing the data and putting it in context. The practical use is getting this in front of decision makers and identifying ways to improve. We hope our reporting does that. -Eric

Why did you push the “hands up don’t shoot” lie instead of reporting facts?

We feel we did report facts first. We disclosed how many officers were investigated for misconduct at a statewide level in 44 states and how many were decertified. That is factual. We also broke down what offenses made up the most decertifications and most were NOT for excessive use of force. We feel this data will help guide the national conversation into policing that is already going on. - James

Were there any cops who you investigated that did something wrong but for the right reasons?

Good morning. We haven't really gotten that far in the reporting. We were looking at the reasons the states gave for the investigations and the decertifications as a whole. We haven't found anything yet where an officer may have been treated unfairly by the system, but it certainly is an angle to look out for. Thanks. - James

Do something useful instead of making painting police with a broad brush. Isn’t there something better you can spend your time on? At least don’t everyone reading this the disservice than making the broad claim that there were 85,000 criminal police officers. It’s the pathetic journalists like you, pushing motivated agendas at the expense of decent people, that make me less trustful of the media environment.

If you read carefully, you'll see it's not "criminal" police officer but those that have been investigated. And certainly this is a small percentage of police officers in the country. But it seems important that the people we give badges and guns to and entrust with our safety should be people who have proven, well, trustworthy. -Eric

Have you let /r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut know about this AMA?

We did now :-) Thanks for the reminder! -Eric

USA Today is still a thing?

As far as we know. We're still getting paid as of last Friday. And we did technically triple the size of our investigative team late last year to do more stuff like this, so there's that :-) -Eric