The Recycled Police Officer: Research Reveals High Cost of Ignoring Prior Misconduct
by Jo Ellen Nott
A study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology quantified a systemic threat to public safety, viz., the “wandering police officer.” By analyzing 6,075 officers across 150 agencies for up to five years, researchers whose work was published by the American Psychological Association found that law enforcement agencies are routinely hiring high-risk candidates despite clear evidence of past disciplinary failures.
The data reveal a concerning correlation between pre-hire behavior and future liability. Officers with a prior record of professional misconduct, including written reprimands, suspensions, or terminations, were more than six times more likely to be fired at their new positions than those with clean records. Furthermore, hires with prior law enforcement experience were nearly twice as likely to be sued for misconduct compared to officers with no prior law enforcement experience.
The study was able to identify red flags that accurately predict future harm to the community. New hires with experience were significantly more likely to face accusations of sexual harassment, racism, and excessive use of force while policing in their new positions.
Additionally, behavioral indicators such as documented domestic violence incidents, temper problems, bad credit, and frequent job changes were strongly linked to increased misconduct risk. Despite these risks, agencies largely ignored warning signs, and lead researcher Stephan Dilchert, Ph.D., said departments should not give strong preference to candidates merely because they have prior law enforcement experience.
The failure to screen these “recycled” officers has devastating consequences for community trust. The research found that one in five officers received at least one professional misconduct report within five years of being hired. Dilchert noted that while departments often fire officers after an incident occurs, they fail to prevent the harm initially by ignoring evidence-based warning signs.
For the criminal justice system, this creates a cycle of misconduct allegations and diminished public trust. For agencies and communities, the source notes that police misconduct is financially costly and undermines public trust and community safety. The lack of national hiring standards allows problematic officers to move between the thousands of decentralized agencies across the U.S. To mitigate this harm, experts call for centralized credentialing systems and legal protections for departments that share disciplinary records, ensuring that a badge is not a shield for documented misconduct that is likely to be repeated.
Dilchert concludes by warning police departments “to stop ‘looking the other way’ when encountering red flags during hiring because every community deserves police officers who have been thoroughly vetted.”
Source: Forensic Mag.
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