Let’s stop saying bad police officers are rare.

They’re plentiful from coast to coast.

1. The ugliness knows no geographical or
political boundaries. It’s truly nationwide.

2. Corrupt, racist, violent, sexist police
officers aren’t just low-level newbies,
but  chiefs and captains.

“These problems aren’t rare, they aren’t isolated, and they are taking an enormous human and financial toll on our country. If we are to ever properly address this problem, we cannot do so if we do not honestly admit its expansive size, scope and depth.

A rare problem will get a tiny solution. That’s what we’re getting right now, but the United States is facing a true moral human rights crisis with police brutality and corruption in our country. The United Nations just sharply criticized our country for our police brutality crisis. For the first time in its history, Amnesty International is sending human rights monitors to the United States to monitor American police and is issuing scathing reports on what it is finding.

For millions of Americans, this issue is the most important issue in our nation. It’s time we act like it.”

Just How Many Bad Cops are There and What is Their Impact?

9,000 bad cops in the US is a massive problem. 90,000 bad cops in the US is total disaster. People are dying. Unarmed people, often in front of witnesses, sometimes even on camera. We as a nation are simply accepting the process by which justice is meant to be be served. We are accepting that 90,000 (or even 9,000) bad cops on our streets with our children is somehow acceptable.

Imagine how much it would improve if every man, woman and child who witnessed a police interaction took out their phones and cameras and captured video of it. Someone gets pulled over, 10 people begin filming. A cop approaches a teenager in the mall, 20 people start filming. Every time. Imagine if every cop knew that every time he was in public WE would be there to hold him accountable. Imagine…

more at:  http://www.copblock.org/99550/how-many-bad-cops-what-impact/

above by Kelly W. Patterson
a lifelong resident of Las Vegas, who’s been very active in local grassroots activism, as well as on a national level during his extensive travels. He’s also the founder/main contributor of Nevada CopBlock, Editor/contributor at CopBlock.org and designed the Official CopBlock Press Passes.

General Statistics

The following report was generated from data gathered in the months of April 2009 through September 2009. In the those 6 months there were:

2,568 – Alleged victims of reported police misconduct.
2,854 – Law enforcement officers alleged to have engaged in misconduct.
207 – Law enforcement leaders (police chiefs or sheriffs) that were cited in those reports.
215 – Fatalities reported in connection with alleged instances of misconduct.
14.7 – Reported incidents of misconduct tracked per day on average or a report of misconduct every 98 minutes.
1 out of every 116.4 – Estimated number of officers who will be involved in a reported act of misconduct this year.
$128,906,406 – Reported costs in police misconduct related civil litigation, not counting legal fees or court costs.

Categorization

When examining misconduct reports by type, non-firearm related excessive force complaints were most common at 21.3% (652) of all reports, followed by sexual misconduct complaints at 13.0% (397), and then fraud/theft reports at 9.8% (300).

When examining reports by last reported status, 32.8% had resulted in some sort of adverse outcome for the officers involved (25.7%) or their representative employers (7.1%). 215 (7.0%) officers were disciplined, 138 (4.5%) were fired, and of the 1018 who were criminally charged, 317 were convicted of a criminal offense for a 31.1% conviction rate.

State Statistics

The following statistics only count state, city, and county law enforcement agencies since current federal law enforcement employment rates were not available for calculation. The statistical rates are based on the NPMSRP statistics and employment data provided by the 2008 US DOJ/FBI UCR.

The average national police misconduct rate is estimated to be 834.69 per 100,000 police officers. In 2008 there were an estimated 712,360 state and local law enforcement officers employed in the US for an average of 1 officer for every 231.5 people.

the above info from:  http://www.policemisconduct.net/2009-npmsrp-semi-annual-police-misconduct-statistics-report-updated/