U.S. attorneys across the country charge law enforcement officers in civil rights cases about 42 times a year, declining to prosecute more than nine in every 10 cases referred to prosecutors by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The percentage of civil rights cases that end without federal prosecution is in contrast to charges brought in immigration cases or white collar crime cases, according to data collected by the Transactional Records Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.

In the past five years, federal prosecutors brought charges in less than seven percent of the FBI referrals involving civil rights violations under color of law. By contrast, federal prosecutors brought charges in about 44 percent of wire, radio and television fraud cases referred to them, the TRAC data show. Prosecutors brought charges in more than 98 percent of the FBI referrals on cases of illegal reentry of non-citizens into the U.S.

Those cases, former federal prosecutors say, often are easier to win.

In addition, interviews and a review of federal cases reveal, U.S. attorneys consider bringing civil rights charges after local prosecutors either elect not to prosecute, or unsuccessfully prosecute law enforcement officers for abuse.

“Usually what happens is the local district attorney will investigate, and if the local [prosecutor] brings charges then the U.S. attorney won’t get involved,” said attorney L. George Parry, who had experience prosecuting police abuse both as a federal and state prosecutor in Pennsylvania.

Civil rights lawyers say that federal prosecutions against officers for abuse are rare.

“It doesn’t happen,” said Jon Loevy, a Chicago-based lawyer who has won several large verdicts for clients in abuse cases.

The data show that the FBI refers far fewer investigations of potential civil rights violations by law enforcement to prosecutors than in the early years of the TRAC data, which goes back 30 years. Between 2010 and 2014, prosecutors considered 3,139 civil rights cases referred by the FBI. In the first five years, prosecutors considered 14,755 cases referred by the FBI.

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Rick Tulsky was the co-founder of Injustice Watch and served as editorial director until he retired in 2020. Before starting Injustice Watch in 2016, Rick was the founding director of Medill Watchdog, a program at Northwestern University’s journalism school to undertake collaborative projects on systemic problems while mentoring students in such work. Rick previously worked at the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion Ledger, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News and the Center for Investigative Reporting. His work has received more than two dozen national awards including a Pulitzer Prize, and has been a nominated finalist in two other years.

Emily Hoerner was a reporter for Injustice Watch from 2016 to 2021, where she covered policing, judges, and other aspects of the criminal justice system. She won numerous awards for her work at Injustice Watch, including an Ancil Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism and a National Headline Club award, and was a finalist for the Online News Association's Knight Award for Public Service.