And in a lot of situations, the police chief can't even (permanently) get rid of bad cops, even if they want to. The fired officers sue with the backing of the

And in a lot of situations, the police chief can't even (permanently) get rid of bad cops, even if they want to. The fired officers sue with the backing of the union, and are often rehired. There was an NYT article a while ago—I'll see if I can find it—featuring a number of chiefs who described how they'd fired cops guilty of everything from small-time incompetence to horrific abuses of power. They were forced to rehire these idiots after lawsuits.