How a Data Tool Tracks Police Misconduct and Wandering Officers
The Yale Law Journal defines “wandering officers” as law-enforcement officers who are fired by one department, sometimes for serious misconduct, but then find work at another agency. There’s some debate about the extent of this problem, but the National Police Index, which launched in November, 2024, could help answer these questions.
The NPI harnesses the expertise of the Invisible Institute’s Sam Stecklow, the Innocence Project’s Ayyub Ibrahim, and HRDAG’s Tarak Shah. On the site, users can select a state, then search an officer’s name, agency or unique identifier number. The site will then show the officer’s start and end dates at their agency of employment and the reason for separating from the agency. So far, the tool includes records from states. These histories could shed light on wandering officers.
“Police often avoid accountability by moving to another agency rather than face discipline,” said Tarak about the project. “This tool, allowing anyone to look up and track the histories of such officers, provides an invaluable service for the human rights community in our fight against impunity.”
The NPI is a collaboration that builds on HRDAG’s partnerships with the Invisible Institute and the Innocence Project. In 2020, we began work with the Innocence Project and Public Data Works to build the Louisiana Law Enforcement Accountability Database, known as LLEAD. This database, which launched on October 3, 2022, is a public tool for transparency, consolidating information about police misconduct and use of force from more than 500 law enforcement agencies in the state of Louisiana.
In 2021 HRDAG partnered with the Institute to process documents for the Citizens Police Data project, a database of reported instances of police misconduct in Chicago, and on Beneath The Surface, which focuses on allegations of gender-based violence by police.
Image: Mapquest.
Further readings
NPR Illinois. Madison Holcomb. 16 October, 2024.
Want to know a police officer’s job history? There’s a new tool.
Acknowledgments
HRDAG was supported in this work by MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Heising Simons Foundation.
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