No US National Police Misconduct Database? Here’s Why That’s Deadly
Officers fired for abuse keep getting rehired. Even in high-profile cases.
In 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was playing in a park when he was shot and killed by Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann. It later emerged that Loehmann had been forced to resign from a previous department due to emotional instability and incompetence. Yet, because there was no national system tracking police misconduct, he was able to get another job in law enforcement, this time with deadly consequences.
Tamir's mother, Samaria Rice, expressed her anguish over the lack of accountability, stating, "I have not yet received an apology from the police department or the city of Cleveland."
Loehmann’s case is not an anomaly; it’s part of a systemic failure that allows police officers with records of violence, misconduct, and corruption to move freely from one department to another. This isn’t just negligence; it’s a deliberate choice by lawmakers and police unions to shield bad officers from consequences.
The U.S. has no federal police misconduct database, even after decades of public outcry. The question is: Why not? And how many more Tamirs before America fixes this?
A System Designed for Secrecy
If you wanted to find out whether the officer patrolling your neighborhood has a history of brutality, you’d probably be out of luck. That’s because there is no federal, publicly accessible database tracking police misconduct. Instead, we have a patchwork of secrecy and voluntary reporting:
The Loopholes That Protect Bad Cops
The National Decertification Index (NDI): This database tracks officers who have lost certification relies on voluntary state reporting and is hidden from the public.
The FBI’s National Use-of-Force Data Collection: Participation is optional, meaning many departments don’t bother submitting data.
State-Level Databases: Some states track decertified officers, but most don’t share their records, leaving dangerous gaps.
Independent Efforts: Investigative journalists and activists have built their own databases, but these lack legal enforcement power and are incomplete due to police department stonewalling.
Bottom line? Bad cops can disappear from one jurisdiction and reappear in another—no questions asked.
See our article about qualified immunity here:
How “Wandering Officers” Keep Getting Away With It
This lack of oversight creates a disturbing pattern: officers fired for brutality, corruption, or abuse move to another department, often in smaller communities with fewer resources to conduct thorough background checks.
A 2020 Yale University study found that officers fired or resigned under investigation were more likely to be rehired than those who left voluntarily. These same officers were far more likely to engage in misconduct again.
This isn’t just a theoretical issue. It’s happening in real life, even in high-profile cases.
Case in Point:
In 2022, the small rural town of Tioga Borough, Pennsylvania, hired none other than Timothy Loehmann—the officer who killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland. Loehmann had been fired from the Cleveland Police Department after it was revealed that a previous employer deemed him unfit for duty. Yet, despite his national notoriety, he landed another job in law enforcement.
Community outrage forced his resignation within days, but the fact that he was even hired in the first place exposes the gaping holes in police accountability. If a nationally infamous officer like Loehmann can get rehired, how many others are quietly being given second chances across the country?
In Florida, an Orlando Sentinel investigation found that between 1988 and 2016, nearly 500 officers with previous misconduct records were rehired across the state.
This isn’t just an administrative failure; it’s a moral failure. By refusing to track violent and corrupt officers, our leaders are protecting abusers instead of communities.
See our reporting on the justice system here:
The U.S. Has Tried to Fix This Before And Failed
Despite numerous attempts, every effort to create a national police misconduct database has been blocked by police unions, conservative lawmakers, and bureaucratic loopholes.
The Justice in Policing Act of 2020 – Proposed after the murder of George Floyd, this bill included a federal misconduct database. It passed the House but was killed in the Senate after Republican opposition.
The George Floyd Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act – Sought to create national policing standards and a misconduct tracking system, but it was never enacted.
Executive Order 14074 (2022) – Signed by President Biden to establish the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD). However, in 2025, President Trump rescinded the order, deactivating NLEAD and shutting down federal tracking of police misconduct.
Every time a reform effort gains momentum, police unions fight back, claiming that such databases would “unfairly target” officers, even though doctors, teachers, and lawyers already have similar misconduct tracking systems.
What We Must Demand NOW
America is the only developed nation that refuses to hold its police accountable on a federal level. If we’re serious about justice, we must demand:
✔️ A mandatory national database tracking all officers fired for misconduct.
✔️ Full public access—no more secrecy.
✔️ Strict penalties for departments that fail to report misconduct.
✔️ Due process protections so officers can appeal wrongful inclusions.
This is not radical. It’s basic accountability.
The only question is: How many more innocent people have to die before America finally acts?
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Bibliography:
"Tamir Rice's mother calls for Cleveland police department apology" – The Guardian, March 3, 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/03/tamir-rice-mother-cleveland-apology
"Small Pennsylvania town hired ex-Cleveland officer who shot Tamir Rice" – Spotlight PA, December 2022. https://www.spotlightpa.org/statecollege/2022/12/tamir-rice-timothy-loehmann-police-tioga-pa-pennsylvania
"List of police reforms related to the George Floyd protests" – Wikipedia (multiple updates). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_police_reforms_related_to_the_George_Floyd_protests
"Trump administration shuts down national police misconduct database" – The Guardian, February 22, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/22/trump-administration-shuts-down-national-police-misconduct-database
"The Wandering Officer" – Yale Law Journal, 2020. https://www.yalelawjournal.org/article/the-wandering-officer
"Police officer certification and licensure in the United States" – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_officer_certification_and_licensure_in_the_United_States
"Why Police Officers Rarely Change Jobs" – The Atlantic, September 2024. https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2024/09/why-police-officers-rarely-change-jobs/679758/
God help us all!