Here’s What the Whole 40 Percent of Cops Thing Means — and It’s Not Good

You’ve probably heard on TikTok, because that’s how things tend to spread these days, about a statistic involving cops. The claim suggests that 40 percent of police officers are domestic abusers, meaning the very people hired to protect and serve our communities are violent in their own homes, whether toward a wife, husband, or partner.

It’s a pretty alarming number, especially since so many people already complain that encounters with police can be aggressive, and in some cases, even deadly. It also raises the question of whether the job itself plays a role in how officers handle conflict at home.

While folks are quick to share the stat online, it’s important to slow down and look at the facts before running with it. So let’s get into where this claim comes from, and whether it’s actually true.

The whole “40 percent of cops are domestic abusers” claim actually comes from a 1992 study that found 40 percent of officers “reported marital conflicts involving physical aggression.” But that stat is both outdated and even misleading.

The study was published in the article Interspousal Aggression in Law Enforcement Families: A Preliminary Investigation by Peter H. Neidig, Harold E. Russell, and Albert F. Seng.

In it, officers admitted to getting physical with their partners in the year before the survey. Still, that doesn’t mean 40 percent of the entire police force in the U.S. is violent at home.

For one, the study only looked at 385 male officers, 40 female officers, and 115 female spouses. Most of the officers were between 30 and 49 years old with between 15 and 19 years on the job. So, while what came out of that group is still concerning, it’s not something you can just stretch across the entire force in 2025.

This is especially true since those officers are likely long out of the field, and hiring standards have changed since then.

And if you do the math, 40 percent of that group comes out to about 170 officers. That’s still a lot, but when you compare it up against the more than 750,000 sworn officers in the U.S., per the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, it doesn’t exactly paint the full picture.

So while the study highlights a concerning trend in that small group, it doesn’t really reflect what’s happening across today’s police force.

The National Center for Women & Policing is one organization that has been highlighting the “40 percent of cops” claim, while also pointing to cases where officers reported for violence received “exceedingly light discipline.”

The organization notes that “officers who are found guilty of domestic violence are unlikely to be fired, arrested, or referred for prosecution.”

They cite one case in Boston where 23 domestic violence complaints were lodged against police employees, and none led to criminal charges. However, that case dates back to 1998 and 1999, so it’s considered outdated.

Another example given involved the Los Angeles Police Department investigating 227 alleged domestic violence cases involving officers. Only 91 were “sustained,” and just four resulted in criminal penalties. But again, this data is from 1990 to 1997, making it another example of old information.

That said, it’s not to say these stats hold no truth at all. But until more current data is available, they can’t really be used to reflect today’s police force.