Wandering Cops: How States can Keep Rogue Officers from Slipping Through the Cracks
This report examines the issue of “wandering cops”—officers who leave one police department after alleged misconduct and are then hired by another agency. After discussing the problem of wanderers, its causes, and the relevant literature, this paper proposes a number of recommendations to address the problem and related concerns. These recommendations include: 1. Strengthen the National Decertification Index (NDI) maintained by the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST): a. Create incentives and set aside federal funding for all police agencies to report to their states’ police officer standards and training (POST) bureau any changes in officers’ employment or disciplinary status—including dismissals and retirements/resignations of personnel under investigation—within 30 days. Existing and pending legislation should be reviewed to ensure that these events are promptly recorded. b. Require an NDI inquiry as part of the background check for any applicant who claims prior police or peace officer employment, in order to determine whether the applicant’s certification was ever canceled. 2. Strengthen individual state POSTs, particularly since some are reporting varying levels of success in implementing the new powers that they have already received.1 States should consider requiring police departments to report all terminations and questionable departures to their state POST, as well as requiring the POST to submit the information to NDI. 3. States should pass legislation that clarifies the authority of POSTs not to merely list officers but to decertify them. State law should clearly specify the criminal or civil offenses or departmental violations that trigger decertification; whether decertification is automatic or whether it may be decided by a panel of law-enforcement and civilian personnel; whether officers have the right to appeal; and how decertified officers are to be recertified if they are found not guilty in a criminal or civil procedure or are returned to full duty based on legal or union appeals. This will ensure a precise definition of “listing” versus “decertifying.” 4. The federal government and/or states should subsidize the costs of recruit training: a. States should use a portion of the $350 billion that they will receive from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to directly subsidize the costs of training for all police departments or, at a minimum, departments below a certain size or budget. By subsidizing the cost of training new officers, states can reduce the incentive for local police departments to hire wandering police officers. b. States should also use ARPA funds to hire and train POST staff with the technological expertise to ensure that information shared with NDI is timely and accurate.
New York: The Manhattan Institute, 2022. 18p.