#11743. How many complaints against police officers can be abated by incapacitating a few “bad apples?”

July 2026publication date
Proposal available till 15-05-2025
4 total number of authors per manuscript0 $

The title of the journal is available only for the authors who have already paid for
Journal’s subject area:
Law;
Public Administration;
Places in the authors’ list:
place 1place 2place 3place 4
FreeFreeFreeFree
2350 $1200 $1050 $900 $
Contract №11743.1 Contract №11743.2 Contract №11743.3 Contract №11743.4
1 place - free (for sale)
2 place - free (for sale)
3 place - free (for sale)
4 place - free (for sale)

Abstract:
The notion that the unjustified use of force by police officers is concentrated among a few “bad apples” is a popular descriptor that has gained traction in scholarly research and achieved considerable influence among policy makers. Leveraging a simple policy simulation and data from the Police Department, we estimate that removing the top 10% of officers identified based on ex ante risk and replacing them with officers drawn from the middle of the risk distribution would have led to only a 4–6% reduction in the use of force incidents over a 10-year period. Our analysis suggests that surgically removing predictably problematic police officers is unlikely to have a large impact on citizen complaints. By assembling some of the first empirical evidence on the likely magnitude of incapacitation effects, we provide critical support for the idea that early warning systems must be designed, above all, to deter problematic behavior and promote accountability.
Keywords:
Complaints against police; early warning systems; police use of force

Contacts :
0