Why It's So Hard to Indict a Police Officer

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There is no uniform data on officer-involved shootings and indictments, but most criminologists agree that that few police officers are ever indicted, much less convicted, in shootings or other violent crimes.

That proved to be the case for Officer Darren Wilson, the police officer involved in the shooting death of Ferguson teenager Michael Brown. After deliberating for days, a 12-member grand jury had not found probable cause to indict the officer.

Statistics show that even the low bar of probable cause is difficult to meet when it comes to police misconduct. According to the National Police Misconduct Statistics and Reporting Project, which tracked cases of alleged police misconduct between April 2009 and December 2010, of the nearly 430 officers accused of killing a person using excessive force, only 30 were charged. Just half of those 30 were convicted.

William Yeomans, a former attorney for the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, tells The Takeaway that we empower police to protect us, so the law gives them leeway. In the wake of the Ferguson decision, he says, some wonder if the law cuts officers too much slack. 

Yeomans, now a fellow in law and government at American University's Washington College of Law, explains that certain officer-involved crimes—such as the beating of Rodney King, prosecuted in federal court—are easier to convict than others.