Chandler Bienek

La enf cemen mi c nd c : De c ibing bad a le and hei ba el in h ee he n states

Chandler Bienek, Leslie Lively, and Camille Gibson (Faculty Mentor)

College of Juvenile Justice and Pyschology, Justice Studies

Prairie View A&M University

This mixed method study describes a sample of law enforcement officers whose misconduct led to their decertification to work in the field in Texas, Florida, and Arizona. It also describes the organizations from which most of the decertifications came. Utilizing publicly available data from media sources from 2014 to 2017, 582 cases have been identified with sufficient case details for analysis. Thus, a limitation is that the cases represent many, but not all decertifications during the time period. Profiles of the officers and the law enforcement organizations were generated and analyzed by examining news accounts for patterns in conduct and by running descriptive and correlative statistics. The goal was to understand which key characteristics were associated with police misconduct. The data reveal that for Arizona, Florida, and Texas, the leading acts of police misconduct involve dangerous drugs, driving under the influence, and assault. Additionally, the age of officers involved in police misconduct tend to be over 30, with very few instances of the officer being under 30 years old. This suggests that officers are likely on the job for at least five years before being decertified. What differs among the three states are the organizations that generate the most decertifications. For instance, the data for Arizona show that the majority of the misconduct comes from police departments. In Florida, the majority is from correctional facilities, and in Texas, most cases are from sheriff s offices. Understanding law enforcement misconduct trends and where they exist should contribute to improving community trust in law enforcement and, in turn, public safety.

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