Failure to discipline misconduct

Failure to discipline established misconduct is the departmental refusal to impose internal consequences on officers whose misconduct has been documented or adjudicated. Concrete forms include closed cases despite sustained complaints, transfers in lieu of discipline, the rehiring by other departments of officers fired for misconduct elsewhere, and contract provisions that delete sustained findings after specified intervals. The publication tracks documented patterns of non-discipline.

Documented entries (6)

2026

AP investigation finds ICE detainees dying by suicide at an unprecedented rate

An Associated Press investigation published May 27, 2026 found that at least 10 people have died by suicide in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since January 2025 — a pace far outstripping the growth of the detained population and unprecedented in the agency's two-decade history, against a historical baseline of roughly zero to one such death per year. Seven of the deaths have occurred since October 2025, already the most in any single fiscal year, and suicides now account for nearly a fifth of the 51 deaths in ICE custody over the period. AP's review of ICE data, autopsy reports, coroner's rulings, and police records found facilities repeatedly violated ICE's own detention standards on intake screening, suicide-risk monitoring, mental-health care, and access to materials that could be used for self-harm.

ICE returns agent who killed Renée Good to duty with no discipline as FBI probe stalls

By late April 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had quietly returned agent Jonathan Ross — who fatally shot unarmed Minneapolis mother Renée Good on January 7, 2026 — to active administrative and investigative duty in another state with no disciplinary consequence. ICE's internal-affairs review remains frozen pending a stalled FBI probe, after the DOJ Civil Rights Division under Harmeet Dhillon declined to open a civil-rights investigation into the shooting.

Hegseth lifts Apache crews' suspensions and quashes Army investigation of Kid Rock estate flyby

On March 31, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on his personal X account that the Army aircrews suspended over a March 28 Apache helicopter flyby of singer Kid Rock's Nashville estate would face "No punishment. No investigation," lifting the suspensions and quashing the Army's formal review hours after the service had confirmed it. The reversal came shortly after President Trump commented publicly on the incident, and Hegseth opened his post by thanking Kid Rock.

Police fired 27 shots at unarmed Navy veteran John Jenuwine; he bled out while officers watched

Washtenaw County Sheriff's deputies, pursuing an erratic white van, conducted two PIT maneuvers and fired 27 shots at an unarmed driver who did not match the dispatch description. John Andrew Jenuwine, 34, died of blood loss. Officers violated department policy by using deadly force without verbal engagement; the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide. Two deputies received 2024 commendations despite the killing.

2025

DHS reinstated ICE officer who shoved Ecuadoran woman on video, three days after calling conduct 'unacceptable'

On September 29, 2025, DHS quietly reinstated an ICE officer who had been placed on administrative leave after video captured him shoving an Ecuadoran woman to the ground outside Manhattan's immigration court. The reinstatement came three days after DHS publicly declared the officer's conduct "unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE" and announced a "full investigation," and followed only a "preliminary review." No public statement accompanied the decision; DHS instead deflected follow-up by attacking the character of the detained woman's husband.

FBI Director Patel and Deputy AG Blanche confirmed closure of Homan bribery sting probe, called it 'baseless investigation'

On September 21, 2025, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche jointly confirmed to ABC News that the Department of Justice had closed a federal bribery probe into Tom Homan, the White House's border enforcement czar. The investigation, inherited from the Biden administration, had been predicated on undercover FBI recordings of Homan allegedly accepting $50,000 in cash from agents posing as contractors seeking government contracts. Patel and Blanche publicly labeled the probe a "baseless investigation," stating it had found "no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing."