More than 450 police officers across America fired for misconduct were rehired by their departments who were forced to take them back, according to a Washington Post investigation published Thursday.
The Post examined records since 2006 from 37 of the largest local police agencies in the country. The study found officers who violated the public trust won their jobs back after they appealed the termination and the department was forced to rehire them, often on a procedural violation.
Atlanta Police Department was the only police agency in Georgia reviewed by the newspaper's investigation. APD fired 87 officers during that period and were forced to rehire 7 officers -- roughly 8 percent, the Post found.
Nationally, 24 percent of the 1,881 officers fired won their jobs back, according to the review. The misconduct included sexual abuse, unjustified shootings and lying on time cards among other violations.
An AJC investigation published in May found many Georgia police officers forced out of their jobs in one agency ended up employed as school police officers across the state.
The review of thousands of state police certification records found roughly 12 percent of officers working for local school systems had been previously been fired or resigned under a cloud versus 6 percent for local police agencies.
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