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We've found 85,000 cops who’ve been investigated for misconduct across the country. Starting today, you can dig into their records. @USATODAY Network has obtained records from hundreds of agencies, and every state, so far. We're working to publish it all. usatoday.com/in-depth/news/…
We're leading a national effort including reporters in our 100+ local newsrooms to obtain and publish the largest clearinghouse ever of records about police conduct. We have hundreds of thousands of records so far from state oversight agencies, prosecutors and police departments.
Today, we're releasing a searchable database (and the underlying records from states) of more than 30,000 law enforcement officers in 44 states who have been decertified. Essentially, the states have banned them from the profession. usatoday.com/in-depth/news/…
What we've found already is that doesn't keep those people from keeping or getting jobs as police. In fact, the first investigative report (of many) in this series shows some officers who've been decertified or had serious misconduct went on to become police chiefs and sheriffs.
That investigation is out today and tells the stories of police chiefs who outran their past misconduct to get to lead a police department (or two, or three) despite serious misconduct that might've ended their careers. usatoday.com/in-depth/news/…
Today's database and the source records underlying them are a first taste of what we've gathered and intend to release. Records about tens of thousands more officers and hundreds of thousands more incidents will be published, with a search index and access to the raw records.
In addition to releasing records about tens of thousands more officers, we'll also be rolling out a series of investigative reports that are made possible by the collection and analysis of this unprecedented trove of public records and data.
USA TODAY plans to publish many of those records to give the public an opportunity to examine their police department and the broader issue of police misconduct, as well as to help identify decertified officers who continue to work in law enforcement.
This kind of thing isn’t possible without an army of reporters. Many to be named later today, but first hats off go to @nicholsmarkc & @ericlitke for herding a team of people to gather all these records and build (many) datasets around a very disjointed collection of information.
And with intrepid records hunters and sunshine law warriors including @BrettKelman @AndrewFordNews @meganrcassidy @ryanmartin @adwolfson @BySteveReilly @jamespilcher @A_a_ron_OWH @BenLanka
