US Leaders Call for a
National Registry of Police Misconduct
It Exists. It’s called the NDI.
The National Decertification Index (NDI) is a national registry of police officers whose law enforcement credentials have been revoked due to misconduct.
For more than 10 years, the NDI has provided police departments, state agencies, and other organizations with decertification data about potential hires.
Powers the NDI
Acadis hosts the NDI via a high-security framework. Acadis is the creator of the Acadis® Readiness Suite, the premier training and compliance software built exclusively for public safety agencies. This all-in-one solution allows you to efficiently track an officer’s career from hire to retire.
Manages the NDI
IADLEST (International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training) supports effective and defensible standards for the employment and training of public safety personnel. The organization brings state and international partners together to exchange ideas and compare progress toward innovative criminal justice practices.
Automates the NDI
The Acadis® Readiness Suite is the only software that automatically reports to the NDI. Such a seamless approach relieves state and local departments from the manual tasks required to gather and submit the information separately. This helps expand participation, improves overall compliance, and offers the most up-to-date information.
Powers the NDI
Acadis hosts the NDI via a high-security framework. Acadis is the creator of the Acadis® Readiness Suite, the premier training and compliance software built exclusively for public safety agencies. This all-in-one solution allows you to efficiently track an officer’s career from hire to retire.
Manages the NDI
IADLEST (International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training) supports effective and defensible standards for the employment and training of public safety personnel. The organization brings state and international partners together to exchange ideas and compare progress toward innovative criminal justice practices.
Automates the NDI
The Acadis® Readiness Suite is the only software that automatically reports to the NDI. Such a seamless approach relieves state and local departments from the manual tasks required to gather and submit the information separately. This helps expand participation, improves overall compliance, and offers the most up-to-date information.
Learn more about how Acadis® can help your state
For over two decades, Acadis has worked with public safety agencies to establish best practices and overcome unique challenges as the world evolves. By utilizing Acadis®, you can easily share information to the national registry and help prevent bad hires in your state. Request a demo to learn more about this exclusive public safety software system.
Why is it important to have a national registry of police misconduct?
It’s simple: so officers who aren’t qualified to be on the force can’t get hired at another department. Every incident of police officer misconduct erodes police credibility and creates an increasingly dangerous environment for both police and civilians. Moreover, officers involved in use-of-force fatalities often have complaints, disciplinary action, and even firings on their records. A national registry of decertified police officers can help law enforcement agencies avoid hiring officers who lost their badges due to gross misconduct, illegal activity, or other serious offenses.
How does this impact the states?
The NDI is intended for use by law enforcement agencies and POST organizations. But like many tools, it only works if agencies use it—and right now, they aren’t required to. For the NDI to be truly effective, every U.S. state must work toward legislation that requires more thorough reporting, including decertification information for every officer. Developing state-level legislation protects states’ rights in mandating what they want to report, protects police departments from some types of litigation, and maintains the integrity of hiring departments. Moreover, once the state utilizes a single database, information can be reported easily to a national registry (the NDI). This prevents bad hires both within and across state lines.
The IADLEST National Decertification Index is a powerful tool for law enforcement agency hiring authorities to use when performing background investigations on potential candidates.
No. The NDI is a pointer system. We do not store any specific data about an officer’s case. We merely indicate that there is information about the officer in a particular state and we provide information about where more detailed information may be obtained.
The only authorities permitted to enter records into the NDI are the certifying agency in each state. In most cases, it will be the State Peace Officer Standards and Training agency (POST).
The criteria are determined by each POST independently in accordance with their own policies. However, only findings sufficient for a state’s official sanction of misconduct are accepted into the NDI.
