Rutgers Law Center Releases ‘Police Misconduct’ Study

NEWARK, NJ — A Rutgers study that takes a look at qualified immunity, police union influence and other “barriers to prosecuting police misconduct” was released last week.

Rutgers Law Professor David Troutt, founder of the Center on Law, Inequality and Metropolitan Equity (CLiME), spearheaded a study that examined “police misconduct and the structural reasons why it’s difficult to hold American police officers accountable for misconduct and bad behavior.”

Read the full study here.

The study cites several current structures in place, including:

• Qualified immunity for police officers
• Officers being personally indemnified from paying court judgements
• Police union influence and the power of arbitration
• The close relationship between police departments and prosecutors
• Barriers to prosecuting police misconduct

According to a news release, Troutt and Laurol looked at national statistics, lawsuits, police-involved shootings, legislative changes and other data, then recommended changes that would create better police accountability and a safer overall structure for all residents, including Black Americans.

Among their findings were that:

• “there is no national system for reporting police misconduct”
• “the use of force is disproportionately used against Black suspects; that prosecutors are often reluctant to criminally charge police”
• “when an officer is disciplined, that officer is often allowed to have the matter resolved through arbitration”

Researchers said a “deep polarization exists in America in 2021 that divides the country radically over whether police misconduct is a crime.”

Troutt and Laurol suggested a series of steps that would improve the “fairness” of the structure for disciplining officers, including:

• limiting police union authority
• reallocating municipal police funds for mental health, conflict mediation, and other resources
• withholding police funding for institutional abuses
• demilitarizing the equipment and tactics used by police
• instituting legislative changes

“If we are serious about dismantling the structure of racial inequality — and myriad legal, moral, economic, social and democratic reasons demand that we do — then making transformative change in violent police behavior is an overdue imperative on the way to becoming a more just nation,” researchers stated.

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