Policing Hiring Practices In The Field Of Law Enforcement

Policing Hiring Practices In The Field Of Law Enforcement

William Melendez had quite a long criminal record—for a policeman. Melendez worked as part of the police force in Garden City, Michigan. In his 15 years as an officer there, he was involved in over a dozen lawsuits alleging various forms of misconduct, including the use of excessive force, planting evidence, making arrests without probable cause, and wrongful death. In one 1996 case, Melendez shot and killed an unarmed motorist whom he had made lie down by the side of the road during a traffic stop. The city settled with the deceased man’s family for $1 million in a plea deal that allowed Melendez to avoid prison. Although this information was in the public record, that did not stop Melendez from landing a new job in Inkster, Michigan, a few years later. In 2016, he was arrested again when released video showed him dragging a man out of his car and beating him unconscious—after stopping him for running a stoplight. Inkster, like Garden City, also settled out of court, awarding the beaten motorist $1.4 million. 

In the wake of controversies over recent cases like this one—as well as other nationally publicized police brutality cases in New York City, Baltimore, Chicago, Seattle, and Ferguson, Missouri—many people are beginning to ask questions about how police officers are selected and why some “bad apples” are allowed to move from one jurisdiction to another, despite clearly questionable employment histories. Indeed, a study conducted by the Wall Street Journal followed for seven years the cases of roughly 3,500 officers who lost their jobs due to arrests or convictions and found that over 10% of this group was still working in law enforcement. 

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