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Rural Law and Justice

Police Accountability in Rural Communities: A spatial analysis of decertification in New York State Ted Forsyth*, Ted Forsyth,

Much of the literature on police accountability in the US focuses on urban geographies yet little is known about how police are held liable for misconduct in rural communities. Prior research shows that people in rural communities who are victimized by police have few options to obtain justice. Attorneys are scarce; civilian review boards and internal affairs divisions are also rare. Transportation to the county seat to file complaints may be an all-day affair. In light of these obstacles, police officer decertification is one way of obtaining justice in rural communities. This is not a panacea and it does not prevent misconduct. However, it does prohibit former officers from gaining future employment in law enforcement.

In NYS, if a police agency fires an officer for reasons related to misconduct, the state can decertify the officer. The Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) has compiled a list of some 2,476 decertified police and peace officers recorded between 2016 and 2025. More than half of New York’s police departments in rural communities across the state are staffed by 10 or fewer officers. This prompts several important questions such as (1) what police accountability mechanisms are currently implemented in NY’s rural communities? (2) what proportion of decertifications occur in rural communities? (3) spatially, how are decertifications distributed across the state? And (4) is decertification an accessible form of police accountability for rural communities?

Drawing on publicly available data, open records requests, and newspaper articles, I will show that decertification in NYS needs to be strengthened and expanded because it may be one of the few effective mechanisms of police accountability in rural communities across the state.