# Do complaints of police misconduct follow a power law distribution

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-complaints-of-police-misconduct-follow-a-power-law-distribution/854869>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 1, 2020, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-complaints-of-police-misconduct-follow-a-power-law-distribution/854869 "2020-06-01T19:15:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-complaints-of-police-misconduct-follow-a-power-law-distribution/854869/1 "2020-06-01T19:15:30Z")

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Like do 5% of officers get named in 60% of all complaints and accusations of abuse?

While the top 15% get named in 80%

Top 1% get 30%?

I’m making these numbers up, but I’m assuming misconduct charges follow a power law and it actually is a few bad apples causing the issues. Does anyone know the actual statistics?

I read that regarding the Floyd case, the cop who killed him had 18 accusations of misconduct. Another officer had 2, the other two officers had zero each.