вЂњThereвЂ™s been shootings there,вЂќ Danny Diaz, a McFarland native and one of the townвЂ™s former cross country stars, said pointing at the red-and-white playground near McFarland High School. Many struggle to earn a livable wage вЂ“ a third of McFarlandвЂ™s 15,000 residents live below the poverty line.Д«ut when the sun sets, longtime residents donвЂ™t always feel safe on streets where the territories of two of CaliforniaвЂ™s largest gangs meet. Farmworkers head to the fields by the hundreds. ItвЂ™s still dark outside when families pack into dusty Hondas, straw hats ready to block the unforgiving sun of CaliforniaвЂ™s Central Valley. McFarland sits 25 miles northwest of Bakersfield, nestled between rows of grapevines and almond trees. вЂњThey hire these officers that travel from one department to another with a terrible portfolio.вЂќ McFarland, USA вЂњThereвЂ™s these little agencies that just do a despicable job,вЂќ said Tom Barham, a former Los Angeles County SheriffвЂ™s lieutenant-turned-attorney who has represented both sides in law enforcement lawsuits.

Reporters from the Investigative Reporting Program at UC-Berkeley unraveled the breadth of McFarlandвЂ™s roster of second-chance cops during an extensive review of criminal court records, lawsuits, police internal affairs reports and other documents as part of a statewide coalition of news organizations examining California officers with criminal records. Drug use, recent DUIs, just stuff in their background that was just like вЂare you kidding me?вЂ™вЂќ вЂњThe ones that I turned down scared me, really scared me. вЂњI can understand that you would like everybody to be squeaky clean, but I didnвЂ™t have that world to live in,вЂќ said David Frazer, McFarlandвЂ™s first police chief. And some, like McFarland, set the bar extraordinarily low. Instead, itвЂ™s up to local police chiefs to decide when a candidate is too tainted to hire. The state doesnвЂ™t flag disgraced officers to potential employers or revoke their badges. How could one police department make so many questionable hires? For one, California does close to nothing to stop problem police officers from popping up at job after job.

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