It's pretty bad when fast food jobs and being just a regular potato picker in a field somewhere has higher standards for employment than many police departments. >> We count on law enforcement officers to protect and serve. Most live by that motto, but tonight we explore what happens when they don't. >> Wait a minute. Do you really count on cops to protect and serve you when they 99% of the time don't get there until after the crime is committed? What person in their right mind is actually depending on a cop to protect and serve them? And most cops live by that motto. >> Most live by that motto. Apparently, this newscaster doesn't know anything about the Mullen Commission or the Knap Commission that came to the obvious conclusion that the entire New York City Police Department was embroiled in active police criminality. I'd say that's a big departure from protecting and serving as a motto. Senior investigative producer John North and I dug into how some troubled officers keep moving from one department to another and the impact that can have on public trust and safety. >> Troubled officers. That's got to be a euphemism for criminal psychopaths. >> They're officers who've made headlines for all the wrong reasons. In the case of Ray Faircloth, he is set to stand trial for the homicide of John Anthony Cox, whom he shot four times during a domestic disturbance call in Morgan County back in >> That's what this news crew calls a troubled officer. That's like saying Hannibal Lectar has a little bit of trouble touching people. >> But questions about Faircloth's fitness as a law enforcement officer surfaced long before that. As a Jefferson County deputy from 2005 to 2008, he was reprimanded multiple times for safety violations, disrespect, and insubordination before abruptly leaving the department. Then Sheriff David Davenport wrote in Faircloth's termination letter, "Ray, you are an intelligent young man, but I don't believe you belong in police work." >> Uh, the truth is, Rey, you're not very intelligent. that's why we hired you and you still couldn't get the job done. And it looks like the only reason Ry left is because he disrespected his superiors, not because he was trampling the rights of Americans, abusing his power, and committing highway robbery on him. >> Faircloth would go on to be hired several more times for jobs requiring a badge and a gun. He joined the Anderson County Sheriff's Department in 2009, where he was suspended twice before resigning. He was hired, then fired by the Tennessee Highway Patrol in 2012 for unsatisfactory performance during his initial probationary period. >> Unsatisfactory performance could mean you weren't meeting our quota. You weren't economically terrorizing enough people. You weren't pulling over and harassing and endangering the lives of enough people over here in Nashville. Then came the Oakidge Police Department where he was suspended several times and placed on administrative leave for excessive force before eventually resigning. I >> I think it most certainly is a problem. >> Attorney and former prosecutor Nate Ogle says Faircloth is an example of a so-called wandering officer. They're law enforcement job jumpers moving from agency to agency, often finding new jobs in smaller departments. departments that often face two challenges. Fewer applicants and a lack of resources to properly vet the pool of potential hires. >> They don't care. They don't have stringent requirements to be a cop. Any warm body will do. We've seen that. They're not interested in vetting you. They're interested in filling a position with a guy who's going to do what he's told regardless of what is right. It seems like the aim of most police departments is to get away with as much criminality as they possibly can under the color of law. >> And when that happens, it can erode public trust and cause major problems in those jurisdictions. >> Case in point, former Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper Isaiah Lloyd. He was investigated for inappropriately touching a woman during a traffic stop in 2017. He quit before he could be fired and was suspended for two years by the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission. >> Name an officer that doesn't inappropriately touch people as a matter of course for their profession. They're constantly looking for reasons to put their hands in your pockets, to rifle through your belongings, to patch you down for officer safety, which certifies officers. Lloyd was hired by the Lfallet Police Department in 2023, but was placed on leave without pay and then resigned earlier this year following an alleged domestic dispute with his wife. who was hired in August by the Union County Sheriff's Department. >> Gosh, a police officer engaged in domestic abuse. Imagine my surprise. >> Given his troubled history at THP, attorney general for the seventh district, Dave Clark, took the rare and dramatic step of refusing to prosecute cases investigated by Officer Lloyd, citing concerns about his credibility. It's better to identify a problem employee before that problem becomes yours. >> David Moore with the UT Municipal Technical Advisory Service says Tennessee has no standardized hiring protocol for law enforcement officers. The post commission sets only basic requirements: age, citizenship, education, background check, training, and certification. He urges those who hire law enforcement officers to dig. There are more stringent requirements to become a pizza delivery driver >> deeper into an officer's past. >> Number one, uh would that officer be eligible for rehire at your agency? Number two, what kind of personnel record did that that officer develop while they were at your agency? And can we have a copy of those documents? Number three, did you know that there are tens of thousands of police officers, active police officers, currently on the Brady list, which means you can't trust one word that comes out of their mouth because they've been dishonest in the past. It was documented in their record and now they're on the Brady list. >> And number three, can we talk to the direct supervisor? >> Whatever it takes. That's the burden we bear as a leader of an agency. You have to do those background checks to hire solid people. State Representative and executive director of the UT Law Enforcement Innovation Center, Rick Scarro, used to hire officers at the Clinton Police Department. >> If you are hiring people who want a badge, a uniform, and a gun, and push people around under the color of law, you can't at the same time say, "We're trying to hire solid people." >> As the former police chief, he made background checks a priority. Well, check the references that the that they provide and then you would take those as a maybe as a starting point and then you may go down the street, talk to individuals that that that work there. And if I'm checking with Robin and John about, you know, that person's background, what do you think about them? Could you recommend two or three people I could go visit and talk to? >> This guy's lying. Their rules are not that stringent. They're not that tough. That's why we keep on seeing cops who wear the uniform abusing their power with regularity. We are talking about vicious psychopaths who are so insecure that they will brutalize you if you cuss at them. >> Bad hires not only put the profession at risk, but also the public. >> They knew that I didn't shoot this guy, but they still carried it on. Consider the case of Tyrone Ferguson, wrongfully accused in a road rage case investigated by then Monroe County Detective Daniel Schneider. Before that, Schneider was fired from the Heramman Police Department after lying about a chase that killed someone. In another case, Ashton Lambert worked in law enforcement in North Carolina where he struck and killed a pedestrian while responding to a call with his lights off. After a brief stint at the Knox County Sheriff's Office, he was hired as a deputy in Union County. >> So, he killed somebody, you say? Give that man a uniform badge and a gun. I think I think it'll be all right. >> Video captured his use of excessive force, tasing a woman. Lambert was fired thereafter. >> The only thing you have is your credibility. And when that cred credibility is gone, you're not a valuable police officer anymore. All three experts agree police agencies must do more to keep an officer with a troubled record from cycling through jobs. For Nate Ogle, that would ideally include a comprehensive paper trail that stays with an officer across their career. >> That's a problem. But I think there needs to be more thorough information available from the officer's past. Perhaps some requirement of an actual full scope of their history in law enforcement and that that be provided to each and every agency to whom they apply. That way the agency is aware of what they're getting into when they hire this individual and also prosecutors and defense attorneys would have access to that if it becomes important during the course of a case. >> Uh there's something else that's very important. And a question that must be asked, do psychopaths become cops or do cops become psychopaths? >> But David Moore says right now those personnel files aren't always easy to access because of liability concerns. Each law enforcement officer takes an oath to protect and serve. When they don't, Moore says their fellow officers and the public all pay the price. When we make uh bad decisions that result in in bad circumstances, it doesn't just affect our agency and our community. It affects uh our entire profession and uh every community in the United States. >> What are these people talking about? When a cop follows the letter of the law, people in the community are victimized 100% of the time. Laws are the opinions of politicians backed by the threat of force. You didn't activate your turn signal in time. I see that your license plate isn't properly illuminated. You know, your left brake light's a little dim. I observed you crossing the fog line back there. You had anything to drink tonight? And then you got reports routinely coming in like they did on WSMV in Nashville where they revealed that at least 69 people in the Nashville area were abused by cops and slapped with DUIs when they were stone cold sober, just as one example. So don't tell me that active police criminality isn't a matter of course in every police department and sheriff's department across this nation. And Robin, explain the national efforts that we have seen to track officers in their job performance. >> That's right. In 2022, the Biden administration actually created a national law enforcement accountability database to focus on issues including hiring and training. It also was to collect records of officers misconduct, awards, commendations. But on President Trump's first day in office, he did away with that database. >> Thanks, Trump. The database that shows you who the bad officers are. Well, we don't need that database anymore. Come on. They're the boys in blue. 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