Under Florida’s Police “Bill of Rights” law, if the police take longer than 180 days to investigate themselves for misconduct it becomes illegal to discipline any officers involved. In this case the sheriff took *182* days so this cop gets reinstated despite being found guilty. https://twitter.com/fordfischer/status/1262525932914556928

Here’s the provision in Florida’s police bill of rights law that prevents officers from being disciplined or fired if the misconduct investigation lasts longer than 180 days, even if the officer is found guilty of egregious misconduct: http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0100-0199/0112/Sections/0112.532.html

7 states (CA, FL, KY, LA, MD, OR, RI) have these restrictions on misconduct investigations, letting police avoid accountability. In Louisiana, investigations get tossed if they aren’t closed in 60 days but the officers can’t be questioned by investigators for the first 30 days.

Investigators in Louisiana have 1-2 months to collect the evidence, overcome obstruction from witness officers/police unions, find and interview witnesses, question the accused officers (with 30
days left) and put it together into a case solid enough to result in accountability.

In NO OTHER JOB are people given this level of institutional insulation from accountability. But for police, that’s the norm. Enough to be signed into police union contracts in 1 in every 5 major cities and signed into law in at least 7 states: http://checkthepolice.org