But recent incidents do raise some questions about how police departments might keep tabs on potential bad apples in the bunch. In other words, whether police departments are participating in “liability management,” as one police consultant puts it.

University of Chicago law professor Craig Futterman says the answer is a resounding “no.” In one study, he found that almost half of all complaints and lawsuits filed against the Chicago Police Department came from only a handful of police officers, but that the city doesn’t even track it.

“There’s a small percent who have been allowed to just do this with darn near impunity,” Futterman recently told Marketplace. “Despite the bills racking up, and despite all the complaints.”

Read more at Fusion