By Jill McCorkel for The Conversation
Broadcast version by Diane Bernard for Maryland News Connection
Reporting for The Conversation-Public News Service Collaboration

BALTIMORE -- As protests against police violence and racism continue in cities throughout the U.S., the public is learning that several of the officers involved in the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville share a history of complaints by citizens of brutality or misconduct.

Decades of research on police shootings and brutality reveal that officers with a history of shooting civilians, for example, are much more likely to do so in the future compared to other officers. A similar pattern holds for misconduct complaints.

Officers who are the subject of previous civilian complaints - regardless of whether those complaints are for excessive force, verbal abuse or unlawful searches - pose a higher risk of engaging in serious misconduct in the future.

A study published in the American Economic Journal reviewed 50,000 allegations of officer misconduct in Chicago and found that officers with extensive complaint histories were disproportionately more likely to be named subjects in civil rights lawsuits with extensive claims and large settlement payouts.

In spite of this research, many law enforcement agencies not only fail to adequately investigate misconduct allegations, they rarely sustain citizen complaints. Disciplinary sanctions are few and reserved for the most egregious cases.

Complaints, lawsuits - but few consequences

Derek Chauvin, the ex-officer who has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for killing Floyd, is no stranger to situations in which deadly force has been deployed.

During a 2006 roadside stop, Chauvin was among six officers who, in just four seconds, fired 43 rounds into a truck driven by a man wanted for questioning in a domestic assault.

The man, Wayne Reyes, who police said aimed a sawed-off shotgun at them, died at the scene. The police department never acknowledged which officers had fired their guns, and a grand jury convened by prosecutors did not indict any of the officers.

Chauvin is also the subject of at least 18 separate misconduct complaints and was involved in two additional shooting incidents. According to The Associated Press, 16 of the complaints were "closed with no discipline" and two letters of reprimand were issued for Chauvin related to the other cases.

Tou Thao, one of three Minneapolis officers at the scene as Floyd pleaded for his life, is named in a 2017 civil rights lawsuit against the department. Lamar Ferguson, the plaintiff, said he was walking home with his pregnant girlfriend when Thao and another officer stopped him without cause, handcuffed him and proceeded to kick, punch and knee him with such force that his teeth shattered.

The case was settled by the city for $25,000, with the officers and the city declaring no liability, but it is not known if Thao was disciplined by the department.

In Louisville, Kentucky, at least three of the officers involved in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor while serving a no-knock warrant at her home - allowing them to use a battering ram to open her door - had previously been sanctioned for violating department policies. One of the officers, Brett Hankison, is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit alleging, according to news reports, that he harassed suspects and planted drugs on them.

Hankison has denied the charges in a response to the lawsuit.

Another officer in the Taylor case, Myles Cosgrove, was sued for excessive force in 2006 by a man whom he shot seven times in the course of a routine traffic stop. The judge dismissed the case. Cosgrove had been put on paid administrative leave as his role in the shooting was investigated by his department, and returned to the department after the investigation closed.

Patterns of misconduct and abuse

I am a scholar of law and the criminal justice system. In my work on wrongful conviction cases in Philadelphia, I regularly encounter patterns of police misconduct including witness intimidation, evidence tampering and coercion. It is often the same officers engaging in the same kinds of misconduct and abuse across multiple cases.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that across the nation fewer than one in 12 complaints of police misconduct result in any kind of disciplinary action.

And then there is the problem of "gypsy cops" - a derogatory ethnic slur used in law enforcement circles to refer to officers who are fired for serious misconduct from one department only to be rehired by another one.

Timothy Loehmann, the Cleveland officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice, resigned before he was fired from his previous department after they deemed him unfit to serve. A grand jury did not indict Loehmann for the killing, but he was fired by the Cleveland Division of Police after they found he had not disclosed the reason for leaving his previous job.

In the largest study of police hiring, researchers concluded that rehired officers, who make up roughly 3% of the police force, present a serious threat to communities because of their propensity to re-offend, if they had engaged in misconduct before. These officers, wrote the study's authors, "are more likely ... to be fired from their next job or to receive a complaint for a 'moral character violation.'"

The Newark model

The Obama administration's Task Force on 21st Century Policing recommended the creation of a national database to identify officers whose law enforcement licenses were revoked due to misconduct. The database that currently exists, the National Decertification Index, is limited, given state level variation in reporting requirements and decertification processes.

Analysts agree that this is a useful step, but it does not address underlying organizational and institutional sources of violence, discrimination and misconduct.

For example, in the aftermath of the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the Department of Justice found that the department had a lengthy history of excessive force, unconstitutional stop and searches, racial discrimination and racial bias.

The report noted that the use of force was often punitive and retaliatory and that "the overwhelming majority of force - almost 90% - is used against African Americans."

One promising solution might be the creation of independent civilian review boards that are able to conduct their own investigations and impose disciplinary measures.

In Newark, New Jersey, the board can issue subpoenas, hold hearings and investigate misconduct.
Research at the national level suggests that jurisdictions with citizen review boards uphold more excessive force complaints than jurisdictions that rely on internal mechanisms.

But historically, the work of civilian review boards has been undercut by limitations on resources and authority. Promising models, including the one in Newark, are frequently the target of lawsuits and harassment by police unions, who say that such boards undermine the police department's internal disciplinary procedures.

In the case of civilian review board in the Newark, the board largely prevailed in the aftermath of the police union lawsuit. The court ruling restored the board's ability to investigate police misconduct - but it made the board's disciplinary recommendations nonbinding.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news organization dedicated to unlock knowledge from academic experts.

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Jill McCorkel, Ph.D. wrote this article for TheConversation.com McCorkel is Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Villanova University and the founding director of the Philadelphia Justice Project for Women and Girls. Follow her at jillmccorkel.com and @JillMcCorkel.





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This week, President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 people with federal death row convictions to life sentences without parole.

Groups working on criminal justice reform said it is a start but they would like to see him do more. According to the advocacy group FWD.US, one in two Americans has experienced incarceration in their immediate family and one in three has a criminal record.

Zoë Towns, executive director of FWD.US, applauded Biden's actions and urged him to focus on clemency for those still serving long sentences.

"What we are calling on is for the President in these final weeks of his administration, focus clemency on sentence commutations for people who are in prison," Towns explained. "However, of all of those people -- the pardons and the commutations on home confinement -- nobody actually walked home from prison, right? Nobody's prison term was reduced in any way."

Towns noted most recent commutations for people on house arrest basically removes the threat of reincarceration. She added they are cautiously optimistic Biden will focus on the issue, as a White House news release mentioned the possibility of more pardons and commutations.

Towns pointed out many long-term prison sentences disproportionately affect Black people, citing racial disparities in the harsher past sentences for cocaine possession. The 2010 Fair Sentencing Act reduced the gap but Towns added many remain imprisoned under outdated laws, underscoring the need for clemency.

"We believe that the federal prison population is far too large," Towns contended. "One in eight people who are in prison in the United States are incarcerated in the federal system. There are thousands of people -- nearly 200,000 people -- who have been in that system, who are serving extremely long sentences, and they need attention."

In a bipartisan poll conducted this fall by FWD.US, Towns said more than 80% of respondents agreed clemency should be used more frequently to address lengthy sentences.


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Oregon's constitution guarantees criminal defendants a state-funded lawyer for those who cannot afford one but a massive shortage of public defenders makes it unachievable.

According to the Oregon Justice Research Center, more than 90% of people charged with crimes in Oregon depend on a public defender. However, Oregon has less than a third of the public defense attorneys needed to handle all the cases.

Currently, more than 3,400 Oregonians charged with crimes have no lawyer.

Shannon Wilson, executive director of Public Defenders of Marion County, said public defenders are so overwhelmed with cases they can get burned out after a few years.

"There's not enough attorneys to address that work unless you want to adopt the belief that 300 clients per one attorney is enough to get legal representation," Wilson pointed out.

The Oregon Public Defense Commission estimates the state needs 500 more public defenders to meet its obligations. In 2023, lawmakers approved $96 million for attorney retention, recruitment and pay equity with prosecutors. But the commission said it is not enough.

The Oregon Criminal Justice Commission said recriminalizing low-level drug possession, enacted this year, will lead to nearly 2,300 additional convictions annually, disproportionately affecting people of color. Wilson noted if you can't afford a lawyer, you will likely get put on a waiting list and the wait can be 5 months or more.

Without a lawyer, some people end up spending needless time in jail and are less likely to have a fair trial. Most of Wilson's public defense clients face poverty, medical, or substance-abuse challenges and Wilson added stigma remains a significant barrier to fully funding Oregon's public defense system.

"This is our community, and I feel like we all have a responsibility to take care of everyone," Wilson stressed. "Especially the most vulnerable people that can't advocate for themselves. "

Despite the barriers, Wilson is optimistic Oregon legislators are heading in the right direction. The Oregon Public Defense Commission recommends doubling the state's two-year public defense budget from nearly $600 million to $1.3 billion by 2030.


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West Virginia schools' reliance on zero-tolerance policies are driving more kids into the juvenile justice system - with lifelong consequences, experts say.

New data from the Brookings Institution show Black and Hispanic female students are disproportionately referred to the juvenile justice system for minor offenses.

Elizabeth Shahan, executive director of the nonprofit West Virginia Prevention Solutions, said behavior like vaping in a classroom can land a child in a magistrate's court.

She said research supports using a peer or youth court model that emphasizes positive action, and added it's a huge investment for communities to offer alternatives.

"But when done well, you are judged by a court of your peers, much like a regular courtroom," said Shahan. "That court's job is to come up with a way for you to restore faith in and/or to remedy the situation."

According to the Brookings report, juvenile complaints lead to more school absences and lower test scores.

Black students are more than twice as likely to receive a referral to law enforcement or be arrested at school than white students.

Shahan said research has shown young brains aren't developed enough to fully understand the consequences of their actions.

So, the current punitive model only ensures they have no path forward to recognize their behavior as wrong, or be provided examples of good behavior.

"We now have a situation where we have a serious black mark on that youth's record," said Shahan. "We've basically doomed them to failure."

Shahan added that overuse of the juvenile justice system for minor or nonviolent offenses comes with a hefty price tag for the state.

"A lot of economic research has gone into if we spend a dollar on preventative services, preventative intervention before kids engage in risky behaviors," said Shahan, "then we save $24 in treatment costs, court costs, consequences costs."

She noted that criminal punishment also doesn't address mental health issues that often led to problematic behavior.

According to data from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the number of school-aged kids struggling with anxiety or depression nationwide rose by 1.5 million between 2016 and 2020.