What you need to know
The administration of justice in the United States is primarily handled at the state and local levels. State and local governments employ two‐thirds of all criminal justice workers and pay a much larger share of criminal justice costs than the federal government. Elected officials, like mayors, can choose who leads a police department and influence how law enforcement responds to crime within a particular jurisdiction. While America’s police hold the power to enforce our laws, how they do, the official rules within a police department, and how members of law enforcement conduct themselves is also influenced by the communities they serve and the current social and political landscape. In recent years, there have been several highly publicized incidents involving the deaths of individuals while in police custody and well-documented complaints about the unwarranted use of force by police officers. These incidents raise a fundamental question: how much police misconduct occurs? How many officers are committing misconduct?
What is the documented rate of police misconduct?
Police misconduct is difficult to document. Departments are not generally required to disclose the number of complaints filed against officers, so the data must be obtained from cooperative departments or through public records requests.
For this brief, Policy vs Politics analysts used the following sources:
- Data collected by the Invisible Institute’s Civilian Police Data Project for misconduct cases in the Chicago Police Force during 1988 – 2018
- Data collected by the New York City Civil Liberties Union for misconduct cases in the New York City Police Department during 2000 – 2021
- Data collected by the Invisible Institute and local USA Today reporters for 700 police departments (out of 1800 total) in 44 states covering misconduct cases during 2010- 2019
These sources include information on misconduct complaints, the percentage of complaints substantiated, and the punishments given to offending officers. Policy vs Politics analysts used data in the reports to calculate the total number of officers serving in these departments during the periods.
The chart below shows the percentage of officers with one or more complaints filed against them (solid bar) and the percentage with at least one substantiated complaint (striped bar). (The latter percentage could not be calculated from the 44-state study.)
Interestingly, the three sources agree that over a decade, about a quarter of police officers will be accused of misconduct. However, based on data from the urban departments, only a fraction (about eight percent, or a third of those accused) of these officers will be found to have committed misconduct.
The other way to inept this chart is that during the time frame analyzed here, nearly ninety-two percent of America’s police officers were accused of misconduct or were exonerated after an investigation. This conclusion is consistent with another finding raised by all three organizations: a relatively small percentage of officers (about 5%) account for most complaints.
The next figure details the percentage of officers whose misconduct is serious enough to warrant significant punishment. For the 44-state study, it is the percentage of officers fired from the force. For New York City, it is the percentage fired or given serious sanctions such as suspensions of greater than a week or loss of more than a week’s vacation days. For Chicago, it is the percentage of officers fired plus the percentage of officers who resigned rather than accept their sanction, presumably a multi-day suspension or firing.
These data refine our understanding of police misconduct. While about eight percent of officers are found to have committed misconduct, the percentage whose behavior was serious enough to warrant a major punishment is around three to five percent. In other words, if Americans are concerned about reducing police misconduct, it is important to see that the problem is limited to a small percentage of officers. The challenge is identifying these officers before they commit serious offenses and determining what type and level of training, professional development, and other assessments can be done to mitigate any potential negative impact to the community.
What kinds of police misconduct occur?
The 44-state study contains detailed information on the nature of offenses committed by police officers, as shown in the figure below.
Use of force involves threats or violence against suspects, detainees, and civilians. Substance abuse is the use of illegal drugs or excessive alcohol consumption. Perjury involves lying to superiors or in court. Theft is taking official property or evidence. The final category covers all other offenses.
Use of force complaints against the police only accounts for about a third of misconduct cases. Out of the rest, the most common offense is substance abuse. Perjury accounts for just over ten percent of police misconduct cases, as does theft.
The Take-Away
In recent years, there have been many well-publicized cases of clear police misconduct involving the injury or death of detainees or the unwarranted use of force against individuals suspected of committing relatively minor crimes. One interpretation of these incidents is that many officers can commit misconduct under certain conditions and that major reforms to police training and policies are needed.
However, available data does not support this conclusion. Even over a decade, relatively few officers are found to have committed any kind of misconduct. The percentage found to have committed major misconduct is even smaller. And many misconduct cases do not involve the use of force at all.
The problem police departments face is not to completely rethink law enforcement. It is to identify the individuals whose records suggest they are capable of major acts of misconduct. This task is difficult, particularly because few departments are willing to analyze their misconduct data or allow outside organizations to do so. Relaxing these restrictions and developing new ways to identify and isolate problem officers may help reduce the likelihood of major police misconduct.
Further reading
Kelly, J., & Nichols, M. (2020). We found 85,000 cops who’ve been investigated for misconduct. Now you can read their records. USA Today. http://tinyurl.com/3avrtz29, accessed 12/14/23.
Baumgartner, F., Epp, D., & Shoub, K. (2018). Suspect Citizens What 20 Million Traffic Stops Tells Us About Policing and Race. Cambridge University Press.
White, M., & Kane, R. (2013). Pathways to Career-Ending Misconduct: An Examination of Patterns, Timing, and Organizational Responses to Officer Malfeasance in the NYPD. Criminal Justice and Behavior (40)11: 1301-1325. http://tinyurl.com/yfz73yhy, accessed 12/14/23.
Sources
What is the documented rate of police misconduct?
- Cubitt, T.I.C., Gaub, J.E., & Holtfreter K. (2022). Gender differences in serious police misconduct: A machine-learning analysis of the New York Police Department (NYPD). Journal of Criminal Justice 82(Sep-Oct). https://tinyurl.com/ykvff4s2, accessed 5/20/24.
- NYCLU. 2021. NYPD Discipline by the Numbers. December 1, 2021, https://www.nyclu.org/data/nypd-discipline-numbers, accessed 6/20/24.
- Invisible Institute. 2024. Citizens Police Data Project, https://tinyurl.com/28w7ydz2, accessed 6/19/24.
- Kelly, J., & Nichols, M. (2020). We found 85,000 cops who’ve been investigated for misconduct. Now you can read their records. USA Today. http://tinyurl.com/3avrtz29, accessed 12/14/23.
- Umansky, Eric. 2020. We’re Publishing Thousands of Police Discipline Records That New York Kept Secret for Decades, Propublica, available at https://tinyurl.com/2e29djnj, accessed 7/22/24
What kinds of police misconduct occur?
- Kelly, J., & Nichols, M. (2020). We found 85,000 cops who’ve been investigated for misconduct. Now you can read their records. USA Today. http://tinyurl.com/3avrtz29, accessed 12/14/23.
- Wood, G., Tyler, T.R., & Papachristos, A. (2020). Procedural justice training reduces police use of force and complaints against officers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(18), 9815-9821. http://tinyurl.com/594bf54p, 12/14/23.
Contributors
Macy Steinlage (Intern) graduated in Political Science and Spanish at Kansas State University in May of 2024. She will attend law school at the University of Missouri-Kansas City post-graduation.
Dr. Chris W. Bonneau (Subject Matter Expert) is Professor of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh, co-founder of the Pitt Prison Education Project, and served as President of the University Senate from 2018-2021. He received his PhD from Michigan State University.
Dr. William Bianco (Research Director) received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Rochester. He is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Indiana Political Analytics Workshop at Indiana University. His current research is on representation, political identities, and the politics of scientific research.
Dr. Nick Clark (Content Lead) is Professor of Political Science at Susquehanna University, where he is also Department Head in Political Science and Director of the Public Policy Program and the Innovation Center. He received his Ph.D. from Indiana University and researches political institutions, European politics, and the politics of economic policy.
