OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Flashing lights pierced the black of night, and the big white letters made clear it was the police. The woman pulled over was a daycare worker in her 50s headed home after playing dominoes with friends. She felt she had nothing to hide, so when the Oklahoma City officer accused her of erratic driving, she did as directed.
She would later tell a judge she was splayed outside the patrol car for a pat-down, made to lift her shirt to prove she wasn’t hiding anything, then to pull down her pants when the officer still wasn’t convinced. He shined his flashlight between her legs, she said, then ordered her to sit in the squad car and face him as he towered above. His gun in sight, she said she pleaded “No, sir” as he unzipped his fly and exposed himself with a hurried directive.
“Come on,” the woman, identified in police reports as J.L., said she was told before she began giving him oral sex. “I don’t have all night.”
The accusations are undoubtedly jolting, and yet they reflect a betrayal of the badge that has been repeated time and again across the country.
In a yearlong investigation of sexual misconduct by U.S. law enforcement, The Associated Press uncovered about 1,000 officers who lost their badges in a six-year period for rape, sodomy and other sexual assault; sex crimes that included possession of child pornography; or sexual misconduct such as propositioning citizens or having consensual but prohibited on-duty intercourse.
The number is unquestionably an undercount because it represents only those officers whose licenses to work in law enforcement were revoked, and not all states take such action. California and New York – with several of the nation’s largest law enforcement agencies – offered no records because they have no statewide system to decertify officers for misconduct. And even among states that provided records, some reported no officers removed for sexual misdeeds even though cases were identified via news stories or court records.
“It’s happening probably in every law enforcement agency across the country,” said Chief Bernadette DiPino of the Sarasota Police Department in Florida, who helped study the problem for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. “It’s so underreported and people are scared that if they call and complain about a police officer, they think every other police officer is going to be then out to get them.”
Even as cases around the country have sparked a national conversation about excessive force by police, sexual misconduct by officers has largely escaped widespread notice due to a patchwork of laws, piecemeal reporting and victims frequently reluctant to come forward because of their vulnerabilities – they often are young, poor, struggling with addiction or plagued by their own checkered pasts.
In interviews, lawyers and even police chiefs told the AP that some departments also stay quiet about improprieties to limit liability, allowing bad officers to quietly resign, keep their certification and sometimes jump to other jobs.
The officers involved in such wrongdoing represent a tiny fraction of the hundreds of thousands whose jobs are to serve and protect. But their actions have an outsized impact – miring departments in litigation that leads to costly settlements, crippling relationships with an already wary public and scarring victims with a special brand of fear.
“My God,” J.L. said she thought as she eyed the officer’s holstered gun, “he’s going to kill me.”
The AP does not name alleged victims of sexual assault without their consent, and J.L. declined to be interviewed. She was let go after the traffic stop without any charges. She reported her accusations immediately, but it was months before the investigation was done and the breadth of the allegations known.
She is one of 13 women who say they were victimized by the officer, a former college football standout named Daniel Holtzclaw. The fired cop, 28, has pleaded not guilty to a host of charges, and his family posted online that “the truth of his innocence will be shown in court.” Each of his accusers is expected to testify in the trial that begins Monday, including one who was 17 when she said the officer pulled down her pink cotton shorts and raped her on her mother’s front porch.
But on a June night last year, it was J.L.’s story that unleashed a larger search for clues.
A nurse swabbed her mouth. A captain made a report. And a detective got to work.
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On a checkerboard of sessions on everything from electronic surveillance to speed enforcement, police chiefs who gathered for an annual meeting in 2007 saw a discussion on sex offenses by officers added to the agenda. More than 70 chiefs packed into a room, and when asked if they had dealt with an officer accused of sexual misdeeds, nearly every attendee raised a hand. A task force was formed and federal dollars were pumped into training.
Eight years later, a simple question – how many law enforcement officers are accused of sexual misconduct – has no definitive answer. The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, which collects police data from around the country, doesn’t track officer arrests, and states aren’t required to collect or share that information.
To measure the problem, the AP obtained records from 41 states on police decertification, an administrative process in which an officer’s law enforcement license is revoked. Cases from 2009 through 2014 were then reviewed to determine whether they stemmed from misconduct meeting the Department of Justice standard for sexual assault – sexual contact that happens without consent, including intercourse, sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling and attempted rape.
Nine states and the District of Columbia said they either did not decertify officers for misconduct or declined to provide information.
Of those that did release records, the AP determined that some 550 officers were decertified for sexual assault, including rape and sodomy, sexual shakedowns in which citizens were extorted into performing favors to avoid arrest, or gratuitous pat-downs. Some 440 officers lost their badges for other sex offenses, such as possessing child pornography, or for sexual misconduct that included being a peeping Tom, sexting juveniles or having on-duty intercourse.
The law enforcement officials in these records included state and local police, sheriff’s deputies, prison guards and school resource officers; no federal officers were included because the records reviewed came from state police standards commissions. About one-third of the officers decertified were accused of incidents involving juveniles. Because of gaps in the information provided by the states, it was impossible to discern any other distinct patterns, other than a propensity for officers to use the power of their badge to prey on the vulnerable. Some but not all of the decertified officers faced criminal charges; some offenders were able to avoid prosecution by agreeing to surrender their certifications.
Victims included unsuspecting motorists, schoolchildren ordered to raise their shirts in a supposed search for drugs, police interns taken advantage of, women with legal troubles who succumbed to performing sex acts for promised help, and prison inmates forced to have sex with guards.
The AP’s findings, coupled with other research and interviews with experts, suggest that sexual misconduct is among the most prevalent type of complaint against law officers. Phil Stinson, a researcher at Bowling Green State University, analyzed news articles between 2005 and 2011 and found 6,724 arrests involving more than 5,500 officers. Sex-related cases were the third-most common, behind violence and profit-motivated crimes. Cato Institute reports released in 2009 and 2010 found sex misconduct the No. 2 complaint against officers, behind excessive force.
Cases from across the country in just the past year demonstrate how such incidents can occur, and the devastation they leave behind.
In Connecticut, William Ruscoe of the Trumbull Police began a 30-month prison term in January after pleading guilty to the sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl he met through a program for teens interested in law enforcement. Case records detailed advances that began with explicit texts and attempts to kiss and grope the girl. Then one night Ruscoe brought her back to his home, put his gun on the kitchen counter and asked her to go upstairs to his bedroom. The victim told investigators that despite telling him no “what felt like 1,000 times,” he removed her clothes, fondled her and forced her to touch him – at one point cuffing her hands.
In Florida, Jonathan Bleiweiss of the Broward Sheriff’s Office was sentenced to a five-year prison term in February for bullying about 20 immigrant men into sex acts. Because the victims wouldn’t testify, Bleiwess’ plea deal revolved around false imprisonment charges, allowing him to escape sex offender status. Prosecutors said he used implied threats of deportation to intimidate the men.
And in New Mexico, Michael Garcia of the Las Cruces Police was sentenced last November to nine years in federal prison for sexually assaulting a high school police intern. At the time, he was in a unit investigating child abuse and sex crimes. The victim, Diana Guerrero, said in court that the assault left her feeling “like a piece of trash,” dashed her dreams of becoming an officer, and triggered depression, nightmares and flashbacks.
“It had never occurred to me that a person who had earned a badge would do this to me or anybody else,” said Guerrero, who is now 21 and agreed to her name being published. “I lost my faith in everything, everyone, even in myself.”
A 2011 International Association of Chiefs of Police report on sex misconduct questioned whether some conditions of the job may create opportunities for such incidents. Officers’ power, independence, off-hours and engagement with those perceived as less credible combine to give cover to predators, it said, and otherwise admirable bonds of loyalty can lead colleagues to shield offenders.
“You see officers throughout your career that deal with that power really well, and you see officers over your career that don’t,” said Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty, who fired Holtzclaw just months after the allegations surfaced and called the case a troubling reminder that police chiefs need to be careful about how they hire and train officers.
The best chance at preventing such incidents is to robustly screen applicants, said Sheriff Russell Martin in Delaware County, Ohio, who served on an IACP committee on sex misconduct. Those seeking to join Martin’s agency are questioned about everything from pornography use to public sex acts. Investigators run background checks, administer polygraph exams and interview former employers and neighbors. Social media activity is reviewed for clues about what a candidate deems appropriate, or red flags such as objectification of women.
Still, screening procedures vary among departments, and even the most stringent standards only go so far.
“We’re hiring from the human race,” Martin said, “and once in a while, the human race is going to let us down.”
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In the predawn hours of June 18, 2014, J.L.’s report made its way to Oklahoma City sex crimes detective Kim Davis. By that afternoon, Miranda rights were being read to the suspect, an officer who had arrived out of the academy nearly three years earlier, a seemingly natural move for the son of a career policeman but one borne of deep disappointment.
Holtzclaw was a high school football star in Enid, Oklahoma, and a standout on a middling squad at Eastern Michigan University. He was a 6-foot-1, 246-pound leader to teammates who called him “Claw,” and constantly focused on his ultimate goal of the NFL.
“He trained that way. He talked that way,” said fellow linebacker Cortland Selman.
But the collegiate record for tackles Holtzclaw chased went unbroken, and the draft came and went.
He found traces of life on the field in his life on the beat, telling a reporter for his hometown paper that he enjoyed high-speed chases and once charged through two fences while pursuing a suspect on foot on a snow-slicked winter day. He hoped to eventually join the police gang squad.
The Oklahoma City Police Department said Holtzclaw had not received any prior discipline that resulted in a demotion or docked paycheck, but both the department and the state declined to release his full personnel record, citing state law making it confidential.
J.L.’s accusations made Davis and a fellow detective curious about an unsolved report filed five weeks earlier in which an unidentified officer was accused of stopping a woman and coercing her into oral sex.
According to pretrial testimony, the detectives reviewed the names of women Holtzclaw had come into contact with on his 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift and interviewed each one, saying they had a tip she may have been assaulted by an officer. Most said they had not been victimized but, among those who said they were, other links to Holtzclaw were found, Davis said in court. The GPS device on his patrol car put him at the scene of the alleged incidents, and department records showed he called in to check all but one of the women for warrants, the detective testified.
By the time the investigation concluded, the detectives had assembled a six-month narrative of alleged sex crimes they said started Dec. 20, 2013, with a woman taken into custody and hospitalized while high on angel dust. Dressed in a hospital gown, her right wrist handcuffed to the bedrail, the woman said Holtzclaw coerced her into performing oral sex, suggesting her cooperation would lead to dropped charges.
“I didn’t think that no one would believe me,” she testified at a pretrial hearing. “I feel like all police will work together.”
All told, Holtzclaw faces 36 counts including rape, sexual battery and forcible oral sodomy.
One additional accuser who came forward after Holtzclaw’s arrest later was charged with making a false report. Supporters of the former officer who congregate on social media express hope that others’ claims will be proven false, too, and friends wear T-shirts that say “Free the Claw.”
Earlier this year, while out on bond, Holtzclaw answered the door of his parents’ Enid home, saying of the allegations: “I’m not going to make any comment about it.” His attorney, Scott Adams, canceled an interview and did not respond to calls, emails and a letter.
Adams’ line of questioning at the pretrial hearing suggests he will raise doubts about the accusers’ credibility and portray investigators as having coaxed the women into saying they were attacked. Many of the women had struggled with drugs. Some had been prostitutes or have criminal records. Most lived in the same rundown swath of the city in sight of the state Capitol dome, and they all are women of color.
Many of their allegations are similar, with the women saying they were accused of hiding drugs, then told to lift their shirts or pull down their pants. Some claim to have been groped; others said they were forced into intercourse or oral sex.
The youngest accuser said Holtzclaw first approached her when she was with two friends who were arguing and he learned she had an outstanding warrant for trespassing. He let her go but found her again later that day, walking to her mother’s house. She said he offered her a ride and then followed her to the front porch, reminding her of her warrant, accusing her of hiding drugs and warning her not to make things more difficult than they needed to be. She claims he touched her breasts and slid his hand into her panties before pulling off her shorts and raping her.
When it was over, the teen said he told her he might be back to see her again.
“I didn’t know what to do,” she testified at the pretrial hearing. “Like, what am I going to do? Call the cops? He was a cop.”
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Victims of sexual violence at the hands of officers know the power their attackers have, and so the trauma can carry an especially crippling fear.
Jackie Simmons said she found it too daunting to bring her accusation to another police officer after being raped by a cop in 1998 while visiting Kansas for a wedding. So, like most victims of rape, she never filed a report. Her notions of good and evil challenged, she became enraged whenever she saw patrol cars marked “Protect and Serve.”
“You feel really powerless,” said Simmons, an elementary school principal in Bridgeport, Connecticut, who works with Pandora’s Project, a support group for rape survivors.
Diane Wetendorf, a retired counselor who started a support group in Chicago for victims of officers, said most of the women she counseled never reported their crimes – and many who did regretted it. She saw women whose homes came under surveillance and whose children were intimidated by police. Fellow officers, she said, refused to turn on one another when questioned.
“It starts with the officer denying the allegations – ‘she’s crazy,’ ‘she’s lying,'” Wetendorf said. “And the other officers say they didn’t see anything, they didn’t hear anything.”
In its 2011 report, the IACP recommended that agencies institute policies specifically addressing sexual misconduct, saying “tolerance at any level will invite more of the same conduct.” The report also urged stringent screening of hires. But the agency does not know how widely such recommendations have been implemented.
John Firman, the IACP’s research director, said the organization also is encouraging its chiefs to hire more women and minorities as a way to improve the environment inside departments.
“What you want is a culture that’s dominated by a bunch of people that reflect the community,” he said.
Experts said it isn’t just threats of retaliation that deter victims from reporting the crimes, but also skepticism about the ability of officers and prosecutors to investigate their colleagues.
Milwaukee Police Officer Ladmarald Cates was sentenced to 24 years in prison in 2012 for raping a woman he was dispatched to help. Despite screaming “He raped me!” repeatedly to other officers present, she was accused of assaulting an officer and jailed for four days, her lawyer said. The district attorney, citing a lack of evidence, declined to prosecute Cates. Only after a federal investigation was he tried and convicted.
It’s a story that doesn’t surprise Penny Harrington, a former police chief in Portland, Oregon, who co-founded the National Center for Women in Policing and has served as an expert witness in officer misconduct cases. She said officers sometimes avoid charges or can beat a conviction because they are so steeped in the system.
“They knew the DAs. They knew the judges. They knew the safe houses. They knew how to testify in court. They knew how to make her look like a nut,” she said. “How are you going to get anything to happen when he’s part of the system and when he threatens you and when you know he has a gun and … you know he can find you wherever you go?”
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Though initially out on bond, Holtzclaw has been jailed since July after letting the battery in his ankle monitor go dead.
While he and his attorneys have remained mostly silent on the accusations, he has offered glimpses of his life in online postings. A photo montage he shared showed him flexing his muscles, Eminem playing in the background. He wrote of God’s blessings and copied Bible verses, and offered photos of him cuddling his dog. He wrote that he had maintained faith, that winners overcome and cowards run. He portrayed himself as David fighting Goliath.
“Behind these eyes and this big heart is pain,” he wrote.
Most of Holtzclaw’s accusers also have stayed silent outside of court. Most did not respond to requests from the AP to speak or cited fear or a desire for privacy, but two did agree to interviews.
One woman alleges Holtzclaw coerced her into giving him oral sex. She cried as she spoke, sitting on a dirty couch in a rundown apartment where a blanket attached to the wall with thumbtacks blocked the sunlight. She talked of how afraid she was to go to police, of how images of her alleged attack haunt her. Enveloped in fear, she said she slipped further into drugs.
“I was getting high, but I wasn’t feeling,” she said. “I was too upset to feel anything.”
In the Oklahoma City neighborhood that prosecutors say served as Holtzclaw’s hunting ground, a narrow ribbon of road twists through a canyon of untended growth littered with black bags of stinking trash. Locals call the spot Dead Man’s Curve.
It’s here that Syrita Bowen contends Holtzclaw took her on May 21, 2014, and told her she could submit to oral sex and intercourse or go to jail. In an interview, she said she was convinced it was the cruel joke of some hidden-camera show until he insisted he was serious. She had been jailed many times before, and knew the math: a 15-minute ride downtown, two hours to be booked, up to a day of waiting to move to a cell, hearings drawn out over weeks or months.
She figured she could give him what he wanted in six minutes.
“God forgive me,” she said, “that was the easiest thing for me to do.”
Bowen agreed to have her name published, and initially she offered a steely front, contending no fear or sadness lingered from her alleged encounter with Holtzclaw. But, before long, tears flowed.
She has known poverty and addiction and imprisonment, and said she was repeatedly raped by a relative as a little girl. The violation she alleges now doesn’t even rank as the worst thing to ever happen to her. But she said she thinks about it daily. There are no nightmares, she said, but reminders come in other ways.
Patrol cars seem to pass more often than they did before. Sirens are more jarring. And when a man in uniform goes by, she wonders what might happen.
By the Case
Below are 10 cases from across the U.S. that reflect how such crimes can occur, and the devastation they leave behind. Most of the officers have been convicted and are serving time. Some await trial.
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SERGIO ALVAREZ
Sergio Alvarez, 40, of the West Sacramento Police in California, is serving 205 years to life after being convicted of kidnapping five women and then raping them or forcing them to perform oral sex. The victims testified at Alvarez’s criminal trial last year, recounting how he picked them up while they walked alone in the darkness along a strip known for prostitution, drugs and homelessness. Investigators found a personal “spycam” that Alvarez used to record some of the sex acts. One of the women referred to Alvarez as a “creepy cop” she tried to avoid, but couldn’t. California doesn’t decertify officers for misconduct, though Alvarez relinquished his badge when he was arrested.
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JONATHAN BLEIWEISS
Jonathan Bleiweiss, 35, of the Broward Sheriff’s Office in Florida, began serving a five-year sentence in February after he was accused of bullying about 20 immigrant men living in the country illegally into sex acts. The victims shied away from testifying, so prosecutors reached a plea deal revolving around false imprisonment charges, allowing Bleiweiss to escape conviction on any sexual offenses and thus avoid being labeled a sex offender. Prosecutors said he used implied threats of deportation to intimidate the men. His guilty plea means the state will decertify him.
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MICHAEL GARCIA
Michael Garcia, 39, of the Las Cruces Police in New Mexico, was sentenced last year to nine years in prison for sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl interning at the department. Garcia, at the time assigned to a unit investigating child abuse and sex crimes, was one of the girl’s mentors. The victim said the assault made her give up her dream of being an officer and left her crippled by depression, anxiety and nightmares. In court, she said Garcia “took my spirit away from me” and that “it had never occurred to me that a person who had earned a badge would do this to me or anybody else.” Under questioning by an investigator, Garcia said a brief lapse had cost him his career: “Three minutes for the rest of my life.” Garcia was ordered to forfeit his law enforcement certification.
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DANIEL HOLTZCLAW
Daniel Holtzclaw, 28, of the Oklahoma City Police, is scheduled for trial Monday, accused of sexual offenses against 13 women, including rape, forced oral sodomy and sexual battery. He has pleaded not guilty. The former college football star is accused of targeting mostly poor women from the same rundown neighborhood. Prosecutors say he often used the same ploy of accusing the women of concealing drugs beneath their clothes, then directing them to expose themselves. Central to their case is GPS data they say place him at the scenes of the alleged crimes. Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty says Holtzclaw took advantage of those made vulnerable by their pasts; some of the accusers have criminal records. “It’s somebody that he as a police officer felt like he had power over. And he abused that power,” he said. Holtzclaw has been fired. He declined comment, and his attorney did not respond to messages.
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WILLIAM NULICK
William Nulick, 44, of the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office in California, is awaiting trial after being charged with sexually assaulting four women in 2013. Two who speak only Spanish claim Nulick pulled them over and led them into remote areas, asking for sexual favors in lieu of writing them tickets. Two others claim to have been groped in inappropriate pat-downs. All told, Nulick faces 18 criminal counts, including oral copulation under the color of authority, accepting bribes in the form of sexual favors, and false imprisonment. At a preliminary hearing, Detective Paul Gezzer said one victim told him she “was afraid she was going to die.” Nulick’s attorney, Galatea DeLapp, said her client admits accepting a sexual favor as a bribe but denies a charge of false imprisonment. Nulick resigned from the sheriff’s office. California doesn’t decertify officers for misconduct.
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WILLIAM RUSCOE
William Ruscoe, 46, of the Trumbull Police in Connecticut, began a 30-month prison term in January after pleading guilty to second-degree sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl he met through a program for young people interested in law enforcement. The girl said she began receiving text messages from Ruscoe that grew sexual and that he eventually professed his affection for her and gave her a silver bracelet with a heart-shaped charm that said “Made with Love.” In an incident at the officer’s home, he removed her cadet uniform and sexually assaulted her. At one point, she said, he handcuffed her. Ruscoe has been decertified.
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DARRELL BEST
Darrell Best, 46, of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty in October to sexually abusing two teenagers who were members of the church where the officer was head pastor. The girls said the abuse occurred on several occasions and included incidents at Best’s church and police headquarters. The officer also pleaded guilty to producing child pornography after detectives found sexually explicit pictures of the victims on his phone. “It takes a particular type of depravity, boldness and recklessness for a sexual predator to take photographs of his victim,” the government argued in a court filing. Best is due for sentencing in February; his plea agreement calls for an 18-year prison term. His attorney, Nikki Lotze, called his guilty plea “an important step in accepting responsibility.” The police department said Best resigned in August. The District of Columbia says it does not decertify officers.
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REX NEWPORT
Rex Newport, 47, of the Colville Police Department in Washington state, was sentenced last year to 2½ years in prison for unlawful imprisonment with sexual motivation and other charges. Newport had entered an Alford plea, which allows a defendant to plead guilty while maintaining innocence. According to a detective’s report, a woman said Newport followed her home from a bar and entered her apartment in the remote town near the U.S.-Canadian border. According to a probable cause affidavit, she went to a neighbor’s apartment when he left to take a call on his radio, fearing he would come back to attack her. She saw him come and go and thought it was safe to return, but he was waiting inside. Newport handcuffed her, then removed the cuffs before having sex with her. After she reported the assault, police identified four other women who accused Newport of propositioning them while on duty. The state decertified Newport.
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WALTER NOLDEN
Walter Nolden, 34, of the San Antonio Independent School District Police, was released from jail last year after being given a yearlong sentence related to improper searches of young girls. Nolden was a campus officer at Page Middle School, where six girls in seventh and eighth grade made similar accusations – that the officer had them expose their breasts or peered down their shirts when he conducted searches for drugs. Some of the girls claimed he groped them. Nolden ultimately pleaded no contest to a charge of official oppression. One of the girls said Nolden told her the search was necessary “to make sure she didn’t have anything.” Nolden was decertified.
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CHRISTOPHER STEIN EPPERSON
Christopher Epperson, 37, of the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Department in Utah, is serving three years’ probation in the sexual assaults of two inmates. Epperson pleaded guilty to two federal counts of deprivation of rights under color of law for the offenses in 2009 and 2010 while he was a deputy sheriff working in the county jail. He had groped two female inmates. A separate civil lawsuit against Epperson, the county and the sheriff’s department was filed by one of the women nearly five years ago but remains ongoing; the second woman later joined the litigation. The lawsuit alleges a pattern of behavior by Epperson that began with flirtation, smiles and winks, and grew more serious to include forcing one woman to be photographed shirtless and to fondle the officer, and attempted sodomy. Epperson has voluntarily relinquished his state law enforcement license.
By the Numbers
State records examined involve state and local police, sheriff’s officials, prison guards and school resource officers. No federal officers are included. The U.S. Justice Department defines sexual assault as any type of sexual contact that occurs without explicit consent, including intercourse, sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling and attempted rape.
-990, the total number of officers who lost their law enforcement licenses because of sexual assault or other sex-related allegations.
-549, the subset of officers who were decertified on allegations of rape, child molestation and other acts meeting the DOJ definition of sexual assault.
-441, the subset of officers who lost their licenses for other sex crimes or sex-related misconduct, such as possessing child pornography (a federal crime); sexting; propositioning people in exchange for ignoring violations of the law.
-310, the number of officers with victims younger than 18. These include school resource officers or those working in police youth programs.
-154, the number of officers whose victims were jail or prison inmates. (Cases include forced sex and allegedly consensual sex among inmates and guards, though even that is prohibited and in some states illegal.)
-44, the number of states that have a process for revoking an officer’s license for misconduct, known as decertification.
-7, the number of states and the District of Columbia that said they do not decertify officers.
-3, the number of states that provided no information to the AP.
By the State
In determining whether a decertification was sex-related, the AP relied mostly on the reason a state provided, but cause was not always clear. Some states gave no reason for a revoked license, or used terms such as “conduct unbecoming an officer” or “voluntary surrender” for officers the AP determined, through additional reporting, had committed sex-related crimes or misconduct.
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-ALABAMA: The state’s Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission decertified 123 officers, 20 for sex-related misconduct. Alabama requires local law enforcement agencies to report any officer’s arrest. Convictions or lying to the commission can result in decertification.
-ALASKA: The Alaska Police Standards Council decertified 52 officers, two for sex-related misconduct. Any time officers leave, their agency must notify the state council as to whether they were fired or resigned in lieu of termination. The state may strip an officer’s license even if an incident wasn’t criminal.
-ARIZONA: The Arizona Peace Officers Standards and Training Board decertified 352 officers, 27 for sex-related misconduct. Law enforcement agencies must notify the board of any officer fired for cause, including a “detailed description” as to why. Convictions and noncriminal matters can lead to decertification.
-ARKANSAS: The Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training decertified 116 officers, 22 for sex-related misconduct. Agencies are required to report when they fire an officer. They also can recommend decertification, which can result even when an officer is not charged with a crime.
-CALIFORNIA: California requires agencies to report when an officer is convicted of a felony, and notes all convictions in officers’ personnel files. But the state doesn’t decertify officers and keeps no tally of such information. Under state law, California may strip officers’ certifications only if they were obtained fraudulently.
-COLORADO: The state decertified 142 officers, 22 for sex-related misconduct. According to the state’s online standards manual, officers can lose their licenses after a conviction, though it is unclear whether noncriminal incidents can also result in decertification. Colorado officials did not respond to questions about reporting requirements for misconduct.
-CONNECTICUT: The Police Officer Standards and Training Council decertified 33 officers, five for sex-related misconduct. Law enforcement agencies must notify the state of any felony convictions, as well as any time an officer is disciplined for making a false statement, perjury or tampering with a witness while on duty.
-DELAWARE: The Delaware Council on Police Training decertified 53 officers, none for sex-related misconduct. Law enforcement agencies are required to notify the state council any time they fire an officer. Convictions for a felony or misdemeanor, or obtaining a license by fraud, can result in decertification. Delaware provided no reasons for its decertifications.
-DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: The district has a police standards board, but the Metropolitan Police Department said there is no process for certifying or decertifying officers. The department provided a list of charges for which it fired officers for a six-year period, but did not name them and said they were not considered decertified. The AP excluded them from its count.
-FLORIDA: The Florida Department of Law Enforcement decertified 2,125 officers, 162 for sex-related misconduct. Florida officials are automatically alerted if an officer is arrested. Agencies must also disclose if a “moral character violation” is sustained against an officer. Noncriminal incidents, in addition to convictions, may also lead to decertification.
-GEORGIA: The Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council decertified 2,800 officers, 161 for sex-related misconduct. Law enforcement agencies must report to the state when an officer is arrested, indicted or convicted, or suspended for 30 days or more for misconduct. The state has broad discretion to strip a license. Georgia said some officers decertified in the 2009-2014 records may have later regained their licenses. The AP found about a dozen officers who had their licenses revoked for sex-related misconduct listed as certified on a state website in October 2015.
-HAWAII: Hawaii does not certify officers at the state level and did not provide any information to the AP.
-IDAHO: The Idaho Peace Officer Standards & Training Council decertified 202 officers, five for sex-related misconduct. Idaho requires agencies to report within 15 days any officer’s firing or resignation in lieu of termination. The state can decertify for a conviction or noncriminal incident.
-ILLINOIS: The Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board decertified 62 officers, 10 for sex-related misconduct. The board can decertify only for felony convictions or certain misdemeanors, but not for conduct that doesn’t result in a conviction. Law enforcement agencies and police officers are responsible for reporting any arrests or convictions to the board.
-INDIANA: The Indiana Law Enforcement Training Board decertified 31 officers, eight for sex-related misconduct. There’s no requirement for agencies to inform the state about officer arrests or noncriminal misconduct allegations. The state can decertify an officer for a felony conviction, multiple misdemeanor convictions or filing a false application with the board.
-IOWA: The Iowa Law Enforcement Academy decertified 53 officers, seven for sex-related misconduct. Agencies must notify the state when an officer resigns and explain why if there is a “substantial likelihood” that certification could be revoked or suspended as a result. Noncriminal misconduct, in addition to convictions, can prompt decertification.
-KANSAS: The Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training decertified 143 officers, 28 for sex-related misconduct. Agencies must notify the commission of any officer’s arrest. Kansas can take action on convictions or noncriminal matters.
-KENTUCKY: The Kentucky Department of Criminal Justice Training decertified 43 officers, five for sex-related misconduct. Kentucky doesn’t mandate notification when an officer is arrested or found to have committed conduct that could result in decertification. Officers can lose their licenses over a felony conviction or noncriminal activities.
-LOUISIANA: A state website says agencies must report officer convictions for possible decertification. The Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement, however, said it hadn’t decertified any officers for several years and did not provide any records to the AP.
-MAINE: The Maine Criminal Justice Academy decertified 109 officers, 22 for sex-related misconduct. Agencies must tell the state about officers arrested or convicted of a crime, as well as those fired or allowed to resign for misconduct. Maine can decertify for convictions or on-the-job misconduct.
-MARYLAND: The Maryland attorney general says the state does decertify, but the state’s police standards agency said it had no information responsive to the AP’s request. Police and Correctional Training Commissions policy director Thomas Smith said it is “extremely rare” for the agency to revoke an officer’s license.
-MASSACHUSETTS: Massachusetts does not certify officers at the state level and did not provide any records.
-MICHIGAN: The Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards decertified 52 officers, 10 for sex-related misconduct. Michigan requires that agencies disclose when officers are fired for reasons that could warrant decertification. Those include felony convictions or noncriminal misbehavior.
-MINNESOTA: The Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training decertified 16 officers, seven for sex-related misconduct. Officers must tell the state about any possible cause for losing their license. Decertification can result even when an incident isn’t criminal.
-MISSISSIPPI: The state Department of Public Safety’s Office of Standards and Training decertified 12 officers, one for sex-related misconduct. Agencies must inform the state about officers fired for misbehavior that could result in decertification. Mississippi doesn’t need a conviction to strip an officer’s license.
-MISSOURI: The Missouri Department of Public Safety decertified 144 officers, 26 for sex-related misconduct. Agencies must notify the state when an officer leaves and specifically if it’s for a crime, violation of agency regulations or failure to meet minimum state standards. Missouri can decertify for reasons other than a conviction.
-MONTANA: The Montana Public Safety Officer Standards and Training Council decertified 24 officers, nine for sex-related misconduct. Agencies don’t have to disclose officer misconduct, but must report firings within 10 days of the action. Convictions and noncriminal activities can lead to decertification.
-NEBRASKA: The Police Standards Advisory Council decertified 45 officers, eight for sex-related misconduct. Nebraska doesn’t require agencies to report officer misconduct. Officers can lose their licenses for convictions or noncriminal misbehavior.
-NEVADA: The Nevada Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training decertified 19 officers, eight for sex-related misconduct. The state requires notification when agencies fire officers over an arrest or misconduct that could result in decertification. Nevada can decertify both for felony and misdemeanor convictions involving issues of “moral turpitude.”
-NEW HAMPSHIRE: The New Hampshire Police Standards and Training Council decertified 20 officers, one for sex-related misconduct. Agencies are not required to report officers who are arrested or commit conduct that could warrant decertification. New Hampshire can strip licenses over convictions and noncriminal activities.
-NEW JERSEY: New Jersey does not license officers at the state level and did not provide records.
-NEW MEXICO: The New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy Board decertified 108 officers, 16 for sex-related misconduct. Officers terminated or allowed to resign because of misconduct must be reported by their agencies to the state. Convictions and noncriminal incidents can prompt decertification.
-NEW YORK: New York does not certify officers at the state level and did not provide records.
-NORTH CAROLINA: North Carolina says state law prevents it from disclosing details or providing statistics on most decertified officers. The state requires notification if an officer leaves an agency or is the subject of a criminal or internal investigation. Decertification is possible for felony convictions, misdemeanors or showing “a lack of good moral character.”
-NORTH DAKOTA: The North Dakota Peace Officer Standards and Training board decertified eight officers, three for sex-related misconduct. Agencies are required to report to the state officers arrested or fired for conduct that could lead to decertification. That conduct can include a noncriminal incident.
-OHIO: The Ohio Peace Officer Training Commission decertified 149 officers, 39 for sex-related misconduct. Agencies must tell the state that an officer has left their employment, but they aren’t required to provide an explanation. Court clerks in each county are required to notify the state about an officer’s conviction. The state can decertify for a conviction but not noncriminal misconduct.
-OKLAHOMA: The Oklahoma Commission on Law Enforcement Education and Training decertified 130 officers between 2012 and 2014, 15 for sex-related misconduct. The agency said it was too much work to provide the number of decertified officers going back to 2009. The agency considers most decertification information confidential under state law and allowed the AP to review only final records for officers it deemed to have committed sexual misconduct. Oklahoma requires that agencies disclose when they fire officers for misconduct that could result in decertification. The state can decertify for felony and misdemeanor convictions.
-OREGON: The Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training decertified 237 officers, 104 for sex-related misconduct. Officers fired for any reason must be reported to the state within 10 days. State law allows an officer’s decertification for felonies and many misdemeanors, as well as dishonesty, misuse of authority and several other categories of misconduct.
-PENNSYLVANIA: The Municipal Police Officers’ Education and Training Commission decertified 20 officers, none for sex-related misconduct. The state can decertify any officer who commits a criminal offense that carries a potential sentence of more than one year in prison, under state law. The commission says it relies on local law enforcement agencies to notify it when an officer is eligible for decertification.
-RHODE ISLAND: Rhode Island does not certify officers at the state level and did not provide any records.
-SOUTH CAROLINA: The South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy decertified 546 officers, 46 for sex-related misconduct. The state requires notification when an officer is fired for misconduct that could lead to decertification, including convictions and noncriminal activity.
-SOUTH DAKOTA: The Law Enforcement Officers Standards and Training Commission decertified 19 officers, three for sex-related misconduct. Agencies must disclose to the state when they fire an officer for reasons that may justify decertification. South Dakota can revoke licenses for convictions or noncriminal misbehavior.
-TENNESSEE: The Tennessee Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission decertified 159 officers, 22 for sex-related misconduct. Officers fired for misconduct that may warrant decertification must be reported. Convictions or providing false statements to the commission can also lead to decertification.
-TEXAS: The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement decertified 619 officers, 79 for sex-related misconduct. Agencies are required to report officer arrests to the state, though not the cause of those arrests. Decertification can happen when an officer is convicted or found to have committed noncriminal misconduct.
-UTAH: The Utah Peace Officers Standards and Training Board decertified 145 officers, 61 for sex-related misconduct. Utah requires agencies to investigate any misconduct allegation and notify it if substantiated. Officers can lose their license over a conviction or noncriminal incident.
-VERMONT: The Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council decertified five officers, none for sex-related misconduct. Vermont does not require agencies to report when they fire an officer. Felony convictions and fraud in the application process are cause to revoke a license.
-VIRGINIA: The Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services decertified 17 officers, seven for sex-related misconduct. Felony convictions and noncriminal misconduct can lead to decertification. The state did not respond to questions about what types of officer misconduct it required agencies to report.
-WASHINGTON: The Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission decertified 54 officers, 10 for sex-related misconduct. Washington requires notification of firings or misconduct that may warrant decertification. Officers can lose their licenses even if not convicted.
-WEST VIRGINIA: The West Virginia Division of Justice and Community Services decertified 28 officers, five for sex-related misconduct. Agencies must disclose an officer’s firing, as well as any arrest or noncriminal incident that could prompt decertification. Officers also must tell West Virginia about charges against them, other than minor traffic offenses.
-WISCONSIN: The Wisconsin Law Enforcement Standards Board decertified 15 officers, none for sex-related misconduct. Convictions don’t necessarily lead to decertification, and agencies aren’t required to disclose the reason for an officer’s departure.
-WYOMING: The Wyoming Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission decertified 17 officers, four for sex-related misconduct. Wyoming doesn’t require agencies to report officer arrests or misbehavior. It decertifies for convictions and noncriminal incidents.