The law aims to prevent officers fired by one department for bad behavior from later finding a job in another. So far, 20 officers from local departments have been decertified for offenses ranging from sexual misconduct to domestic violence to dishonesty.

#Hundreds of officers decertified

Lawmakers gave POST a year to set up the state’s decertification system, including hiring staff and establishing investigation procedures. From the start, the commission was playing catch-up.

That’s because, under SB 2, some decertification would apply retroactively. That includes officers who committed felonies, qualifying misdemeanors and certain kinds of misconduct — specifically dishonesty, sexual assault and use of deadly force.

So far, POST has received over 35,000 cases for review. About half of them involve incidents dating before 2023.

The reports include allegations against nearly 20,000 current or former officers who worked for big cities, small towns, universities and a slew of government agencies.

POST has completed investigations into more than 13,000 cases, with nearly 300 resulting in decertifications. Dozens of them voluntarily surrendered their badges.

Another 140 have had their certifications suspended while POST investigates.

  • XanthraxEnglish
    39•1 day ago

    I randomly applied to become a deputy once in SD. I just wanted to see what was happening. The first thing they sent people home for was for wearing JEANS (that was 1/4 of the applicants). They also had a rotating piece of propaganda, “when you’re not working out, they are.”; it was a picture of inmates working out with that text overlaid. You had to either be a jail guard or court guard for 2 years before you could be an LEO. They also would not stop saying,“they’re going to take your gun,”, “they’re going to take your gun and shoot you,”, “they’re going to take your gun and commit a mass shooting,”. That and SUPER racist conversations about demographics. The sheriff has his office above the entrance of the building and brags about watching the new hires. I have NO idea how people work for them. I’ve never really seen the SD police outside of downtown. Mostly, I’ve seen sheriff’s deputies, which is what I applied for. It felt so odd being able to walk into that place just because I filled out an application. It was honestly eye-opening. They really need to get paid more while simultaneously being held to a WAY higher standard. Also, security guards have a better understanding of de-escalation than cops. I did that for a bit. Racist as fuck. They had Facebook for security, and it was just people guessing races based on shitty security images. That was at Target, a company that sells their security systems. This country is fucked. I’m not trying to shill for the police at all, I just thought that might be a relevant piece of info you guys would find interesting.

    Edit: I just caught the instance, lmao

    Edit 2: random tangent: The only thing I ever did as a security guard that felt good was preventing gift card scams. That was the only instance where I felt like I was actually protecting people and not property. I lasted about 2 weeks at that job.

    Edit 3: I found the poster. I was a little off with the quote:

    • @JustAnotherKay@lemmy.worldEnglish
      26•2 days ago

      You’re not wrong, but at least it’s one step in the right direction. Let’s positively reinforce that behavior and try to get them to continue doing better. The police force can be an okay thing once it’s demilitarized. Look into some of the civilian forces around America and how successful they’ve been

      • @amino@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        1•1 day ago

        a lot of countries don’t have militarized police yet they’re still inherently racist. that’s why policing was invented in the first place, to reinforce the state’s monopoly over use of force. I have a feeling you learned nothing from BLM and why it became so massive in 2020

        • @JustAnotherKay@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3•1 day ago

          You’re not wrong. Much of the world has fucked up their civilian forces too. That’s not to say it can’t be done right, which is why it’s so important for us to study the times it has been done right and innovate on those, not the racist and/or militarized ones