Some call them “wandering” cops or “second-chance” officers. Either way, the United States has a huge problem with police officers committing misconduct, resigning or getting fired, and then simply moving away and pinning on a new state’s badge!
A little-known database was actually created over 20 years ago to stop this from happening – so why aren’t they using it?
In 2000, the Justice Department funded the National Decertification Index. It doesn’t track misconduct, but it does list over 30,000 officer “decertifications.” But there’s a small problem.
The database isn’t public, and it’s not even mandatory for states to use it! Some agencies even claim that they can’t afford to train new officers, so they hire old ones with misconduct histories in other departments.
Those departments are typically located in areas with “large populations of color.”
And that’s exactly why officers with shady backgrounds like Timothy Loehmann, who killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice, can easily get hired after sliding under the radar with skimpy background checks.
Each year, more money and resources are put into systems of policing that lead to more Black death – yet there still isn't an honest and accessible system of tracking misconduct! A system like this is not one that truly has the "people’s” interest at heart. It’s a system that needs to be dismantled.