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June 25, 2020
Proposals for Systems of Records on Wandering Officers
Two major policing reform bills before Congress would
attempt to reformlaw enforcementpractices, especially
practices that are considered to be biased againstpeople of
color. The two bills, H.R. 7120 and S. 3985, would, among
other things, require state and local governments to report
data on the use of force, promote theuseofbody-worn
cameras, expand de-escalation training, and reduceracial
profiling. Both pieces oflegislation would also attempt to
curb so-called wandering officers (i.e., law enforcement
officers who are fired or resign under threatof termination
but are later hired by another law enforcement agency,
often in another state).
There are a litany of stories aboutlaw enforcement officers
who are alleged or found to have engaged in misconduct,
including the use ofexcessive force, being hired at law
other enforcement agencies, and it is only dis covered later
that the officers had similar records at previous agencies.
There is dis agreement over how conmon the wandering
officer phenomenon is and to what extent these officers
may be a threat to the public. A 2020 study of law
enforcement officers in Florida found the following:
* There are almost 1,100 wandering officers in any given
year in Florida, and they constitute about 3% of all
officers in the state.
* Fired officers tendto take longerto find new workthan
officers who separate fromtheir agency voluntarily.
Fired officers also tend to moveto smaller agencies with
fewer resources in communities with slightly higher
proportions ofresidents of color.
* Wandering officers are more likely to be fired from their
next job orto receive a complaint fora moral character
violation than both officers hired as rookies and those
hired as veterans who haveneverbeenfired.
Reconrnndaionof the 2 F Century
Po Ii c ink g Ta sk Forc--e
In 2015, PresidentObama's TaskForce on2lstCentury
Policing recommended expanding the National
Decertification Index(NDI) so it could serve as anational
registry ofdecertified officers. The TaskForce noted,
currently the criteria forreporting an action on an officer is
determined by each POST [Peace Officer Standards and
Training Commission] independently, as is the grantingof
read-only access to hiring departments to use as part of their
pre-hire screening process. Expanding this systemto ensuie
national and standardized reporting would assistin ensuring
that officers who have lost their certification for misconduct
are not easily hired in otherjurisdictions.
NDI, a database operated by the International Association
of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training
(IADLEST), contains information onpolice officers who
have had their certifications revoked. Forty-sixstates have
laws that allow for a law enforcement officer's license or
certification to be revoked ifhe or she engaged in serious
misconduct. In these states, a decertified officer is no longer
allowed to workas law enforcement officer in the state
where his or her license or certification was revoked.
NDI data are submittedby a state's POST Commission ora
similar body. NDI is a pointer systenanddoes not
contain information about a specific officer or the actions
leading to decertification. NDI only refers the querying
agency to the agencyholding the appropriate record. POST
Commissions can query NDI, as may law enforcement
agencies that have been granted access by the state's POST
Commission. Some 375 law enforcement agencies have
been granted direct access. All other agencies must rely on
the state's POST Commis s ion, and these commis sions do
not always query NDI.
Officer decertification standards vary by state. In some
states, officers can only be decertified if they are convicted
of a felony, whereas in others, officers can be decertified
for misconductthatdoes notconstitutea crime (e.g., using
alcohol while on duty). Five states (California, Hawaii,
Mas sachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island) and the
District ofColumbia have notestablishedtheauthority to
decertify officers; for states that do have this authority,
reporting data to NDIis voluntary in most cases.
Legislative Proposals
Both HR. 7120 and S. 3985 would expand law
enforcement's access to records related to officer
misconduct sopotentialhires could be better screened, but
neitherbill would accomplish this by expanding NDI.
H.R. 7120, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, woukd
require the Department ofJustice (DOJ) to establish a
public National Police Misconduct Registry. The registry
would contain records of substantiated, pending, and
unfounded complaints filed against law enforcement
officers, disciplinary records, and termination records.
Records would have to indicate whether the complaint
involved theuse offorce orracialprofiling. The registry
would include records of lawsuits and settlements against
law enforcement officers. Law enforcement agencies would
also be required to submit records demonstrating that their
officers have completed all certification requirements for
law enforcement officers in that state. Federal law
enforcement agencies would be required to submit records
to the regis try as well. For state and local governments,
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