Every year, tens of thousands of police officers are investigated for serious misconduct — assaulting citizens, driving drunk, planting evidence and lying among other misdeeds.

The vast majority get little notice. And there is no public database of disciplined police officers.

To create the first, journalists at USA TODAY and its affiliated newspapers across the country – and media partners including the Invisible Institute in Chicago – gathered records from thousands of state agencies, prosecutors and local police departments.

Starting with lists of officers who lost their law enforcement certification in 44 states, we are making those records available here.

Help us investigate

This project is a broad collaborative effort of journalists across the country. You can help.

Are you a journalist, a police or government official or a resident who has acquired police discipline or accountability records in your state or city? We want to see those.

We also want to hear from people with information about the conduct of a law enforcement officer or agency that you believe we should investigate.

If you submit public records, our nationwide network of journalists will first work to validate the records' authenticity and work to add them here.

Share your stories of police misconduct with us We want to hear from you if you believe you’ve encountered misconduct by a law enforcement officer or agency. You can send tips and records about an officer or agency to policetips@usatoday.com. Email Us Need anonymity or security? Send records and tips to us via SecureDrop.

Contributors to this project

More than 100 newsrooms across the country contributed to the gathering of public records for this project, led by USA TODAY and its 100-plus affiliated local newsrooms across the United States.

Also contributing substantially to the ongoing records-gathering and release is the Invisible Institute, a nonprofit journalism organization in Chicago that focuses on delving into issues around policing tactics and criminal justice.

If you are a journalist who wants to contribute records to this project or join us in requesting public records from police agencies across the country, please reach out to John Kelly at jkelly@usatoday.com.

Tarnished Brass: Fired for a felony, again for perjury. Meet the new police chief.

More: We found 85,000 cops who’ve been investigated for misconduct. Now you can read their records.

The team behind this investigation REPORTING AND ANALYSIS: Mark Nichols, Eric Litke, James Pilcher, Aaron Hegarty, Andrew Ford, Brett Kelman, John Kelly, Matt Wynn, Steve Reilly, Megan Cassidy, Ryan Martin, Jonathan Anderson, Andrew Wolfson, Bethany Bruner, Benjamin Lanka, Gabriella Novello, Mark Hannan FROM THE INVISIBLE INSTITUTE: Sam Stecklow, Andrew Fan, Bocar Ba EDITING: Chris Davis, John Kelly, Brad Heath GRAPHICS AND ILLUSTRATIONS: Jim Sergent, Karl Gelles PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEOGRAPHY: Phil Didion, Christopher Powers, David Hamlin, Robert Lindeman DIGITAL PRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT: Spencer Holladay, Annette Meade, Craig Johnson, Ryan Marx, Chris Amico, Josh Miller, Chirasath Saenvong SOCIAL MEDIA, ENGAGEMENT AND PROMOTION: Anne Godlasky, Alia Dastagir, Felecia Wellington Radel, Elizabeth Shell





More in this series

These cops lied. They can still send you to prison

Fired for felony, then perjury. Meet the new police chief.

Police misconduct: Discipline records for thousands of cops uncovered

Search the list of more than 30,000 police officers banned by 44 states.

Death at the hands of police galvanizes mother