A group of USA Today Network publications in California launched an investigation into how California deals with cops who commit crimes.
After six months, they made a few interesting findings. There have been about 630 current and former cops in California who have been convicted on a range of counts, from domestic violence and animal cruelty to reckless driving and manslaughter.
More than 80 of them are still on the job.
What is not particularly interesting about this story is that there are more than 100,000 cops in California. So 80 is a really, really small percentage.
We’re not defending “dirty” cops who commit crimes, and worst, get to keep their jobs, but it seems there needs to be deeper investigations into why there are any cops at all on the job who have criminal convictions. We will be following this story.
Meanwhile, the whistle-blowing publications have now created a database you can use to see if a cop you know, or know of, has caught a charge in the past.
