Abstract.

“Wandering officers” are law-enforcement officers fired by one department, some- times for serious misconduct, who then find work at another agency. Policing experts hold dispar- ate views about the extent and character of the wandering-officer phenomenon. Some insist that wandering officers are everywhere—possibly increasingly so—and that they’re dangerous. Others, however, maintain that critics cherry-pick rare and egregious anecdotes that distort broader reali- ties. In the absence of systematic data, we simply do not know how common wandering officers are or how much of a threat they pose, nor can we know whether and how to address the issue through policy reform.

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www.yalelawjournal.org/pdf/GrunwaldRappaportArticle_s6branzy.pdf