Law enforcement officers accused of sexual misconduct have jumped from job to job - and at times faced fresh allegations that include raping women - because of a tattered network of laws and lax screening that allowed them to stay on the beat.
A yearlong Associated Press investigation into sex abuse by cops, jail guards, deputies and other state law enforcement officials uncovered a broken system for policing bad officers, with significant flaws in how agencies deal with those suspected of sexual misconduct and glaring warning signs that go unreported or get overlooked.
The AP examination found about 1,000 officers in six years who lost their licenses because of sex crimes that included rape, or sexual misconduct ranging from propositioning citizens to consensual but prohibited on-duty intercourse. That number fails to reflect the breadth of the problem, however, because it measures only officers who faced an official process called decertification and not all states have such a system or provided records.
In states that do revoke law enforcement licenses, the process can take years, enabling problem officers to find other jobs. And while there is a national index of decertified officers, contributing to it is voluntary and experts say the database, which is not open to the public, is missing thousands of names.
Some officers are permitted to quietly resign and never even face decertification. Others are able to keep working because departments may not be required to report all misdeeds to a state police standards commission, or they neglect to. Agencies also may not check references when hiring, or fail to share past problems with new employers.
In 2010, a woman sued the Grand Junction Police Department in Colorado, insisting the department erred in hiring officer Glenn Coyne and then failed to supervise him. Coyne was fired, and killed himself days after he was arrested on suspicion of raping the woman in September 2009.
That was sexual assault accusation No. 3, court records show.
While Coyne was still with the Mesa County Sheriff's Office, another woman accused him of subjecting her to a strip search and groping her. The complaint came after Grand Junction had completed its background check, and Mesa County officials - who declined comment - did not investigate or inform Coyne's new employer, according to court records.
Grand Junction police were aware of one other complaint against Coyne, however: The agency had put him on probation and cut his pay after a woman accused him of sexual assault in December 2008. The district attorney's office declined to prosecute, but Coyne was still on probation when the third accusation was lodged, working under a new supervisor unaware of why he was punished.
A federal judge considering the civil lawsuit found no deliberate indifference by police in employing Coyne. An appeals court upheld the ruling but noted the "handling of Officer Coyne could and should have been better."
Grand Junction Police Chief John Camper said a subsequent evaluation of hiring procedures found them to be sound, but added that "it's safe to say that we're more thorough than ever." Prospective officers must sign a form allowing the department to review previous personnel records, and it's considered a red flag if employers don't respond.
"If an agency won't speak with us, or seems reticent to supply details, we'll either dig further into other sources or we just won't consider the applicant any further," Camper said.
Problems at multiple police agencies didn't keep Charles Hoeffer from finding work in Florida, a review of about 1,000 pages of his personnel files found.
Hoeffer has been on paid leave from the Palm Beach Shores Police Department for nearly 20 months while investigators examine a woman's allegations that he twice raped her in 2014. Palm Beach Shores is Hoeffer's third police job, despite complaints dating back more than two decades.
He resigned from his first job with the Delray Beach Police amid a probe into whether he struck his wife with a boot, fracturing her nose, and then lied about it to investigators. Before that investigation was complete, Hoeffer was hired in 1991 by the Riviera Beach Police and left blank a job application question asking if he'd ever been the subject of a police probe. Delray Beach ultimately sustained the accusations against Hoeffer, though no criminal charges were filed, and in 1993 the state police standards agency temporarily suspended Hoeffer's license for assault.
In 1995, Riviera Beach fired Hoeffer after a woman accused him of raping her in a hotel room. An investigation did not lead to any criminal charges, and his termination was reversed by an arbitrator, who found Hoeffer exercised poor judgment by being in the intoxicated woman's room but had not broken department rules. During arbitration, Riviera Beach said Hoeffer had been the subject of several other internal affairs investigations related to women - accusations ranged from harassment to improper touching during an arrest; the charges were never substantiated.
In 2008, Hoeffer moved on to the Palm Beach Shores department. Allegations followed there, too: A woman claimed he made suggestive comments to her during a domestic dispute call, two female dispatchers accused him of sexual harassment, and another woman who went on a date with Hoeffer said he groped her. Once again, no charges. Then came the current rape investigation.
Hoeffer did not return calls from the AP but, under police questioning, he has denied wrongdoing. His attorney, Gary Lippman, said it's not uncommon for officers to have complaints in their files but that no compelling evidence has emerged and the women's claims are rife with contradictions.
Resigning or being fired does not mean an officer loses the ability to work in law enforcement.
Police standards agencies in 44 states can revoke the licenses of problem officers, which should prevent a bad cop from moving on to police work elsewhere. But the process is flawed, said Roger Goldman, a professor emeritus at Saint Louis University School of Law who has studied decertification for three decades.
Six states, including New York and California, have no decertification authority over officers who commit misconduct. And in states with decertification powers, virtually every police standards agency relies on local departments to investigate and report misconduct, with reporting requirements varying, Goldman said. About 20 states decertify an officer only after a criminal conviction.
Consider the variations between Pennsylvania and Florida. In Pennsylvania, the state agency responsible for police certification reported just 20 revocations from 2009 through 2014, none for sex-related crimes or misconduct. Florida decertified 2,125 officers in those six years, some 162 for sex-related misconduct.
The difference: Florida is automatically notified when an officer is arrested and requires local departments to report any time an officer is found to have committed misconduct involving "moral character." Pennsylvania relies on law enforcement agencies to report when an officer has committed a crime or misconduct.
Records provided to the AP from 2009 through 2014 did not include any decertification for former Pittsburgh police officer Adam Skweres, who pleaded guilty in 2013 to extorting sexual favors from five women and is serving up to eight years in prison. Allegations against Skweres dated to 2008, yet he remained on the job until a victim complained to the FBI; he was arrested in 2012.
Another concern is the length of the decertification process.
In Texas, Michael John Nelson left the Hardeman County Sheriff's Office in 2010 after being accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old neighbor. The local district attorney told the AP he did not prosecute in exchange for Nelson relinquishing his law enforcement license, an agreement reached with the victim and her family. Yet by the time his decertification was final - a year after he left the sheriff's office - Nelson had already worked briefly as a reserve deputy in the town of Bayou Vista.
Paul Odin, who was not familiar with the case but replaced the Bayou Vista police chief who hired Nelson, said background checks often are limited by a department's size and budget, and that "a lot of agencies, a lot of cities - to avoid lawsuits - won't disclose anything negative."
A National Decertification Index contains the names of nearly 20,000 officers who have lost their licenses for problems that include sex abuse. But contributing is voluntary, and only 39 states do so.
Former Georgia State Patrol officer Terry Payne wouldn't be found in the index, because Georgia doesn't contribute. That state had more than 2,000 decertifications in six years, and officials said it would be too labor-intensive. Payne was fired in 2008 - and lost his license two years later - for having sex on duty with a subordinate, the daughter of a fellow officer, according to his decertification records. He nevertheless landed three new police jobs in Arkansas; he was certified there before his Georgia license was stripped.
Perry County, Arkansas, Sheriff Scott Montgomery told the AP he did not know Payne had been decertified in Georgia before hiring him in 2011. He said he asked the Georgia State Patrol why Payne was fired but was told only that he wasn't eligible for re-hire. Montgomery ultimately fired Payne for failing to follow an order to stop associating with a woman separated from her husband after the husband complained.
The AP sent written questions to an address associated with Payne but did not receive any response; several listed phone numbers did not work. Payne's certification to work in Arkansas law enforcement was scheduled to lapse in late October, at which point he would have to request a reinstatement. The state police standards agency said he is not currently employed as an officer.
There have been calls since 1996 to require states to log the names of decertified officers into a national database. As recently as May, a White House task force on policing - formed after police shootings in Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere - recommended that the U.S. Justice Department partner with the group that maintains the index to expand it to all states.
Beyond its voluntary nature, the index also contains only limited information: an officer's name, agency, date of decertification and a basic reason for the license revocation.
Goldman, the decertification expert, said he believes every state should license and ban officers the same as they do other professionals, such as doctors and teachers. He supports the creation of a mandatory databank to track problem officers, similar to the congressionally mandated National Practitioner Data Bank for health care professionals.
But Matthew Hickman, a Seattle University professor and expert on law enforcement decertification, predicts a federal mandate would fail because of the country's "long history of local control" of law enforcement. The fix, he said, must come at the local and state level.
Even then, union resistance can cause roadblocks.
In California, union pressure led the Legislature to approve a bill in 2003 that diminished the power of that state's police standards agency, Goldman said. The agency can issue licenses but, unless the license was obtained by fraud, it cannot be revoked. Officials in California said they require local law enforcement agencies to report any time an officer is convicted of a felony crime so they can note that in an officer's file and potentially disqualify him or her from future police work. But they do not track such convictions or how often they disqualify officers.
Police union officials in California and nationally questioned whether decertification is necessary when departments can fire officers and prosecutors can pursue criminal charges. Ultimately, they said, policing the corps is the job of a chief.
"You've got to start at the beginning," said Jim Pasco, director of the Fraternal Order of Police. "Did the process fail when they hired these people? ... And that's a problem that shoots through a whole myriad of issues, not just sexual crimes."
Michael Ragusa - now serving a 10-year prison sentence after being convicted of sexually assaulting three women - admitted during the hiring process with the Miami Police Department that he'd solicited a prostitute, committed theft, sold stolen property and abused a relative. He also was flagged by a psychologist as having impulse control issues.
Still, Ragusa was hired, and he remained on the force for more than three years. Officials later said that the investigator in charge of his background check had himself been disciplined 26 times and was once arrested for falsifying documents.
Changes have resulted from the Ragusa case, according to Miami Police Major Delrish Moss. Psychological assessments of prospective officers have been revised and applications are reviewed more carefully and go through at least five levels of officials, rather than just two.
Barbara Heyer, an attorney who represented one of Ragusa's victims, said departments big and small have no excuse for not weeding out bad hires, considering today's technology.
"To say they don't have the wherewithal ... given the Internet and everything else, that's just a crock," she said.
Heyer said that the victim she represented left the country, unable to escape the terror instilled by the rape. Ragusa had threatened the woman's child, Heyer said, and "she was always fearful he would get out and come look for her."
"She just couldn't get past the fact that this was a police officer."
Nomaan Merchant, a Dallas-based reporter, can be reached at [email protected]. Matt Sedensky, an AP national writer who reported from Florida, can be reached at [email protected]. AP reporter Joe Mandak in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.
The Numbers
Here is a by-the-numbers look at the findings of an Associated Press investigation into sexual assault and sex-related misconduct by law enforcement officers, using state officer discipline records from 2009 through 2014. While the AP's review is the most comprehensive available, the numbers are an undercount because some states did not provide information, and even among those that did, some reported no officers removed for sexual misdeeds even though cases were identified via official records and news stories.
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.
The States
Here is a summary of state actions from 2009 through 2014, including AP's tally of sex-related decertifications. The numbers do not reflect the full scope of the problem because not all incidents get reported; some states, for example, reported no officers removed for sexual misdeeds, even though the AP identified cases in court records or news reports.
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.
-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.
Data journalist Serdar Tumgoren contributed to this report.
Methodology
When an Oklahoma City police officer was charged last year with sexually assaulting or exploiting 12 women and a teenage girl, The Associated Press wanted to know how often officers nationwide are accused of sexual misdeeds. The question has no easy answer because no federal accounting of police misconduct exists. However, most states have standards and training commissions that can strip officers of their law enforcement licenses for misconduct. That administrative process is commonly known as decertification.
Over a yearlong period, the AP collected and analyzed decertification records nationwide from 2009 through 2014. Of the nearly 9,000 cases in which officers were decertified, about 1,000 officers lost their licenses for conduct that the AP found included sexual assault, sex crimes such as possessing child pornography and misconduct that ranged from propositioning citizens to consensual but prohibited on-duty intercourse.
The AP compared the cases to a federal government standard to determine whether the officers' actions amounted to sexual assault or involved other forms of sexual misconduct. The U.S. Justice Department defines sexual assault as "any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient," including forced sexual intercourse or sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling and attempted rape.
While the AP's review is the most comprehensive available - 41 states provided decertification information - the number is an undercount. Some states did not provide information, and even among states that did, some reported no officers removed for sexual misdeeds even though cases were identified via official records and news stories.
Six states, including some with the nation's largest law enforcement agencies, said they did not decertify officers for misconduct and kept no official tally of officer wrongdoing. They are California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island. Three states - Louisiana, Maryland and North Carolina - did not provide information to the AP. The District of Columbia said it had no process for certification.
Standards for revoking an officer's license varied: Almost every state in the U.S. can decertify an officer convicted of a felony. More than 30 have the ability to also decertify for misconduct that may not be criminal. But some states have no reporting requirements, leaving it to local law enforcement to seek the removal of an officer's license or instead let him or her quietly leave the force.
The quality of information in the decertification records also varied widely.
Florida provided the most detailed review, sharing copies of its statewide database of officers' employment histories and discipline reports. Georgia supplied spreadsheets with the names and offenses of officers disciplined for misconduct and access to an online database of information. About 20 states provided a list of all decertified officers' names, agencies and dates and reasons for decertification.
Minnesota refused to name the officers it decertified, though it provided their agencies and reason for decertification. Oklahoma refused to let the AP review all of its files, and released records only for officers it said were decertified for sexual misconduct.
In determining whether an officer had committed sexual misconduct, the AP mostly relied on what a state gave as its reason for decertification. But a cause for decertification was not always clearly stated in the records. Some states gave vague reasons, such as "conduct unbecoming an officer" or "voluntary surrender," for officers who the AP later found - through additional state information, court or other official records, or media accounts - had actions that met the federal definition of sexual assault or constituted another sex crime or sexual misconduct.
Not all decertified officers face charges or a trial, where the standard of proof is "beyond a reasonable doubt." State commissions generally apply a "preponderance of the evidence" standard in deciding whether to revoke a law enforcement license.
The AP found fewer than a dozen cases among the sex-related decertifications it studied in which an officer was acquitted in court or later on appeal. Those officers' licenses were not reinstated, and the cases were included in AP's count. It is also possible for officers to appeal their decertifications and later regain their licenses.