Why It’s So Hard to Stop Bad Cops From Getting New Police Jobs

by Anthony L. Fisher, Reason.com, September 30, 2016

Depending on the state you live in, you may be required to obtain an occupational license to become a plumber, an insurance agent, a hair braider, a manicurist, or even a racetrack employee. These licenses, which can take dozens or hundreds of hours of training to procure, afford privileged access to specific industries—and they can be revoked if certain standards aren't met. But in six states, the same standard isn't applied to one surprising profession: law enforcement.

Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, California, and Hawaii employ 26 percent of this country's law enforcement officers, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. But they have no legal authority to revoke the licenses of cops who have been dismissed for misconduct. And even though the other 44 states can decertify police officers, there is no nationwide mechanism allowing every police department in the country to access an applicant's work history with out-of-state departments. This information gap allows officers banned from working as police in one state to secure law enforcement employment in another state….

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