When an officer is dismissed as the result of a misconduct complaint, they are usually able to stay in the department or negate the consequences.
Typically, the Fraternal Order of Police helps officers reign quietly instead of being fired.
Departments may also not necessarily fire officers, instead putting them on desk duty or assigning them to dismissal probation.
<aside> 🚨 For example, an investigation in Florida shows that 3% of the state’s police force had previously been fired or resigned instead of being dismissed.
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“In 2017, The Washington Post reported that more than 1,800 officers in the nation's largest departments had been fired for misconduct over the previous decade — and that thanks to protections offered by union contracts, more than 450 officers got their jobs back.
In Philadelphia, a 2013 report revealed that 90 percent of officers fired for cause — for cases involving matters as seemingly clear-cut as shoplifting and sexual misconduct — had been restored to duty after arbitration, usually with full benefits and back pay.”
"It's very hard to maintain discipline in a police department especially when at every turn you have cases that wind up getting overturned, people brought back, and in many cases for some very, very serious allegations"
Charles Ramsey, former Philadelphia Police Commissioner
A recent study has found that as misbehaving officers are left in employment, they influence their peers into committing more misconduct.
“For every 10 percent increase in the proportion of a police officer’s peers with a history of misconduct (for instance, adding one allegedly misbehaving member to a group of 10), that officer’s chances of engaging in misdeeds in the next three months rose by nearly 8 percent.”
<aside> 🚨 This is why it’s important to track, flag, and overall increase police accountability. When officers are not punished justly, they return to propagate a positive feedback loop of misconduct within departments.
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