Are you a cop that wants to hurt people? Have you gotten in trouble–legal trouble, even–for violent or otherwise unprofessional conduct? Florida wants you to do your thing there, and has a $13.5m relocation program to bring you home.
Numerous police officers lured to new jobs in Florida with cash from Governor Ron DeSantis's flagship law enforcement relocation program have histories of excessive violence or have been arrested for crimes including kidnapping and murder since signing up, a study of state documents has found.
Bad news for locals:
In the list of bonus recipients, the Daily Dot found at least two dozen officers with identical names that also appear in NYPD's Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) database, a searchable site run by New York City that makes public reports filed against officers for things like excessive use of force and racial profiling. The complaints against names in the database and on the bonus list include accusations that officers unlawfully pepper sprayed, assaulted, and pointed their firearms at suspects, as well as used chokeholds and offensive language regarding race and ethnicity. Allegations were also made that officer propositioned individuals for sex and performed unwarranted strip searches. The Daily Dot is not naming the officers who it could not independently verify were NYPD officers who got DeSantis' Florida bonus.
Settlements ahoy in the Sunshine State!
