After a Minneapolis police officer with a long history of disciplinary problems murdered George Floyd in May 2020, state and local governments around the country considered how to better vet and train officers.

Pennsylvania was among states that embraced a good idea — a statewide database that would track disciplinary action against officers and provide a heads-up for departments considering a candidate who had worked elsewhere.

But a new analysis by Spotlight PA has shown that the system is riddled with loopholes that often render it ineffective.

The law requires departments to upload to the database the disciplinary record of each officer who leaves a department. And it requires a department hiring an officer to consult the database before doing so. It also requires a department to disclose publicly that it has hired an officer who had been subject to “final and binding discipline” in an earlier law enforcement role.

According to Democratic state Rep. Chris Rabb of Philadelphia, sponsor of the original bill, the original proposed scope of the database was “radically diluted” during legislative negotiations.

So, even though departments are required to consult the database before hiring an officer who has worked elsewhere, there is no penalty for not doing so.

And due to procedures in police contracts, complaints against officers rarely result in the “final and binding discipline” that would trigger public disclosure of a newly hired officer with a disciplinary track record.

University of Pittsburgh law professor David Harris told Spotlight PA that the lack of transparency and the unclear definitions in the law create “a giant hole through which a lot of misconduct can escape.”

A common phrase regarding police misconduct is that “there are good cops and bad cops,” just as there is a range of competence in any enterprise. Most other jobs, however, do not endow workers with badges, guns and the power of the state. A citizen’s experience in an encounter with a police officer should not be the luck of the draw..

— The Citizens’ Voice, Wilkes-Barre via TNS