AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: JUNE 2017 35 I n Wisconsin, state offi- cials are trying to keep police officers with a history of misconduct and other issues from continuing to work in law enforcement. According to Wisconsin Public Radio, the state De- partment of Justice is requir- ing law enforcement agencies to report when police officers resign during in- ternal investiga- tions, quit before they get fired or when they’re just fired. “ W h a t t h e Justice Depart- ment will then do is flag those officers in a da- tabase. If those officers try to get a job somewhere else, the hiring agency will be notified of that,” wrote USA Today reporter Jona- than Anderson. A n d e r s o n wrote about the state’s new track- ing system for USA Today. He said, “It’s really all part of an effort to identify officers who switch jobs, or try to hop around different agencies after they’ve commit- ted or been ac- cused of some kind of wrongdo- ing.” Wisconsin officials say that while officers who commit wrongdoing and misconduct are very rare, the new system seems to be targeting plenty of officers. “We really don’t know the full extent of this,” Anderson said. “What we do know is, since this tracking system has come online the Justice Department has reported that there have been at least 59 officers who have been flagged in the state database. That’s since January.” The new “problem-officer flagging system” in itself can- not stop a police officer be- ing hired by another agency. And it’s not meant to replace the decertification system. Part of all this is the fact that many smaller, lower- paying agencies are some- times desperate for bodies. “The expert that we talked to, who has studied this is- sue extensively, said that sometimes police depart- ments — particularly small, financially strapped de- p a r t m e n t s — sometimes have an in- centive to hire officers with ques- t i o n a b l e pasts,” An- derson said. “Those offi- cers can start r e l a t i v e l y quickly. If an agency has to hire a new recruit, they have to invest a lot of time and money and training in that person.” Anderson says people might be sur- prised to find out the po- lice officers and police associations support the new system. “I’ve talked to Jim Palm- er, the execu- tive director of the state’s largest law enforcement group, the Wisconsin Profes- sional Police Association,” Anderson said. “Jim said that no one wants a bad cop out of the profession more than a good one. “Police misconduct can re- ally have a negative impact on public perception of of- ficers and policing.” JimPalmernotesthatwhile his organization generally supports the new tracking system, he has concerns with how it will implemented. “While we support mea- sures to strengthen our law enforcement profession,” Palmer says, “it would be fundamentally unfair to characterize all of the offi- cers that might be flagged in this new system as ‘problem officers.’” Palmer explained that there are a variety of cir- cumstances under which an officer might leave a de- partment while an internal complaint is pending that have nothing to do with that complaint. “If the fact that an officer has been flagged in this system causes an agency that is considering whether to hire them look a little more closely, that’s probably appropriate,” said Palmer. “But if we find that officers are being discriminated against simply because they left a previous job while fac- ing charges that were never scrutinized in disciplinary proceedings or some other fact-finding forum, then we New system to “flag” problem officers Members of the Milwaukee Police Department Honor Guard. Photo courtesy of WPPA. are going to have a serious problem.” If that occurs, Palmer said that his group of more than 10,000 members from nearly 300 agencies will lobby ag- gressively to change the state rules governing the system. “As agencies in Wisconsin and throughout the country struggle to fill the law en- forcement positions needed to keep their communities safe, now is not the time make police recruiting even more difficult,” said Palm- er. “Especially if it means that good cops are being wronged in the process.” There’s very little in the way of details, but it looks a lot like state oversight “If an officer is discriminated against because they left a previous job while facing charges that were never scrutinized, we are going to have a serious problem.” – Jim Palmer