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I spent a large part of last year working with a group of @usatoday Network reporters digging into police misconduct. They assembled a mountain of records from across the country, and today you can read the first results of that work. It's pretty nuts. usatoday.com/in-depth/news/…
They identified 32 police officers found to have committed serious misconduct who not only kept their badges but went on to become police chiefs or sheriffs, "high-ranking examples of how easy it can be for police officers in the USA to escape records of misconduct." 
One man led his fellow deputies on a 100 mph chase after a night of drinking. Not knowing he was the fleeing driver, dispatchers summoned him to assist in the chase of himself. Soon after, county officials appointed him as the sheriff.
Another officer was convicted of a misdemeanor for concealing evidence in a case involving his son, but still landed a job as a small-town police chief. He lost that job after state officials realized their mistake and revoked his certification to be a police officer.)
Another officer lost his license to be a policeman in Kansas after being charged with a felony for pulling a man out of his car at gunpoint while he was off-duty. He landed jobs as the police chief in two other towns in Missouri.
And then there's David Cimperman, who was fired twice from his job as a police officer and pleaded no-contest to a felony for tampering with police radios, but still landed a job as a police chief. That didn't go well.
Some of them landed jobs because their new bosses lacked the wherewithal to navigate a patchwork system that can conceal police misconduct even from the police. Others "simply had so few candidates that they couldn't afford to care."
This was the final story I edited for @usatoday's investigations desk, and it's a good one. @jamespilcher, @A_a_ron_OWH, @ericlitke and @nicholsmarkc did outstanding work.
Here's the story: usatoday.com/in-depth/news/…
