The nonprofit journalism organization Invisible Institute has launched a new tool that allows people to look up police employment history.
The National Police Index, created in partnership with Innocence Project New Orleans and Human Rights Data Analysis Group, compiles data obtained from state police training and certification boards. The tool currently shows data in 17 states, including Illinois. Data for more states is expected to be available soon.
On the site, users can select a state, then search an officer’s name, agency or unique identifier number. The site will then show the officer’s start and end dates at their agency of employment and the reason for separating from the agency.
The tool comes two months after Sangamon County Deputy Sean Grayson killed Sonya Massey in her home in Springfield, Illinois. Records show Grayson worked at five different police departments prior to the shooting and had documented misconduct in at least two of those departments.
“If the Sangamon County sheriff knew people could easily monitor a police officer’s employment history, maybe Sean Grayson would have never been hired,” Chaclyn Hunt, legal director of Invisible Institute, said in a press release. “So-called ‘wandering officers’ have presented a significant danger to residents of every state, and an impediment to lasting police accountability.”
Illinois has a similar officer lookup tool that allows users to see which departments an officer has worked for, but unlike the National Police Index, it doesn’t give the reason why they left.
“Police often avoid accountability by moving to another agency rather than face discipline,” Tarak Shah, data scientist at the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, said in the press release. “This tool, allowing anyone to look up and track the histories of such officers, provides an invaluable service for the human rights community in our fight against impunity.”