What is a crimen-falsi offense and why does it matter for a criminal case?

Crimen falsi means a crime of dishonesty or false statement, perjury, false official statements or reports, falsifying records, forgery, and fraud. Under Federal Rule of Evidence 608(b) and the Brady/Giglio disclosure rules, an officer's history of such conduct bears on their character for truthfulness.

Does the 14.4% mean 1 in 7 of all Florida officers?

No. The denominator is discipline records, not the whole force: 938 of 6,513 FDLE/CJSTC certification-discipline records (2012–2026), which cover 5,922 distinct officers, 911 of whom (15.4%) carry at least one crimen-falsi record. It is not a rate across all certified Florida officers.

Are dismissed or unfounded charges counted?

No. Offense records often list multiple charges with disposition notes. Before classifying, any clause carrying a dismissal, nolle prosequi, acquittal, exoneration, unfounded, or cleared marker is removed, so a charge that did not stick is never counted as a truthfulness offense. This is a deliberate, conservative choice for defensibility.

How do I find out if a specific Florida officer has a crimen-falsi record?

Use the Officer Lookup tool at /officer-lookup. It searches the same FDLE/CJSTC source and returns the verbatim offense text, outcome, agency, and date, each tied to the underlying public record.

Is FDLE/CJSTC discipline data the same as a Brady list?

No. Brady/Giglio lists are maintained by individual State Attorney offices and are not public. FDLE certification-discipline records are public and overlap with that material, but a State Attorney's internal list may hold more. This dataset is a public starting point, not a substitute for a full discovery and disclosure demand.

Does this name any individual officer?

No, aggregate only. It identifies no individual officer. To check a specific officer, use the Officer Lookup tool, which ties every row to the underlying public record.

BenchRecon Data Study · Florida

1 in 7 Florida officer-discipline records carries a truthfulness offense.

Name: Florida officer certification-discipline, crimen-falsi analysis (2012–2026)
Creator: BenchRecon
Published: 2026-06-16
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Of 6,513 FDLE/CJSTC discipline records from 2012–2026, covering 5,922 distinct officers, 938 (14.4%, about 1 in 7) carry a crimen-falsi offense: the conduct that Brady, Giglio, and FRE 608(b) make impeachment material.

We analyzed 6,513 Florida officer certification-discipline records published by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE/CJSTC), 2012–2026, covering 5,922 distinct officers. 938 records, 14.4%, involve a crimen-falsi offense: perjury, false official statements or reports, falsifying records, forgery, or fraud. At the officer level the rate is comparable: 911 of 5,922 officers (15.4%). In 45.3% of those records the certification was revoked.

Aggregate analysis. Reproducible from public records. No individual officer is named.

938discipline records with a crimen-falsi (truthfulness) offense

14.4%of 6,513 discipline records (5,922 officers), about 1 in 7

45.3%of those records ended in revocation

321distinct employing agencies represented

What the records show

Florida maintains a statewide record of officer certification discipline through the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission. Across 6,513 discipline records (covering 5,922 distinct officers) from 2012 to 2026, 938 carry at least one crimen-falsi offense. Within that group (records can list more than one offense):

446 false statement, false report, or false-information offenses
263 fraud or embezzlement offenses
191 perjury offenses
44 falsifying-records offenses
24 forgery or uttering offenses

A broader, dishonesty-adjacent reading, adding theft, bribery, evidence tampering, obstruction, and misuse of office, reaches 1,670 records (25.6%). We report that as context only, not as the headline, because those offenses are a weaker signal of a witness's character for truthfulness than the crimen-falsi core.

Why this matters to a defense

When a case turns on an officer's word, a stop, a statement, a search-warrant affidavit, the officer's own history of dishonesty in the public record bears on credibility. Giglio v. United States extends the Brady disclosure duty to evidence affecting a witness's credibility, and FRE 608(b) addresses inquiry into specific instances of conduct bearing on truthfulness. The figures above show how often that material exists in Florida's public certification-discipline record, material that often sits outside the case file the prosecution discloses.

Methodology & limitations

Source & method

Source: public Florida FDLE/CJSTC officer certification-discipline records. Snapshot analyzed: 2026-06-16.
Population: 6,513 certification-discipline records covering 5,922 distinct officers, 2012–2026 (2026 partial). Figures are per record unless stated as a per-officer rate; neither is a rate across all certified Florida officers.
Crimen-falsi classification: verbatim offense text matched for perjury, false statement/report/information, falsifying, forgery/uttering, fraud, and embezzlement. Theft, bribery, tampering, obstruction, and misuse of office are excluded from the headline (reported only in the broad context figure), consistent with the FRE 608(b)/609 truthfulness distinction.
Dismissed charges removed: before classifying, any offense clause carrying a dismissal, nolle prosequi, acquittal, exoneration, unfounded, withdrawn, or cleared marker is stripped, so a charge that did not result in an adverse outcome is never counted.
Reproducible: the counts come from a published script run against the source data; re-running it regenerates every figure on this page.

What the data does NOT show

A discipline record is not, by itself, proof of guilt in any individual matter; we count adverse dispositions as recorded.
A discipline record does not reflect an officer's current certification status.
These are statewide certification-discipline records only, not local internal-affairs files or State Attorney Brady/Giglio lists, which sit with other custodians.
Do not infer anything about a specific named officer from these aggregate figures. This study identifies no individual officer.

By agency

Per-agency breakdowns, records, crimen-falsi share, and revocations for 20 Florida law-enforcement agencies with 25+ discipline records:

Cite this analysis

Journalists and researchers, please link to this page as the source.

BenchRecon, “1 in 7 Florida officer-discipline records carries a crimen-falsi (truthfulness) offense” (2012–2026 FDLE/CJSTC data). https://benchrecon.com/florida/officer-discipline-data

Download the aggregate dataset (CSV) — per-agency discipline counts, crimen-falsi counts, and revocations. Aggregate only; no individual officer rows.

Methodology questions or a data request for a story: see the Florida officer disciplinary records reference.

Check the officer in your case

BenchRecon's Officer Lookup ties FDLE/CJSTC discipline rows to a named officer, with every entry cited to the underlying public record and a records-demand roadmap for the internal-affairs and Brady/Giglio files the statewide dataset does not hold.

Search the officer in your case Free: Florida officer discipline records reference Free: Florida Evidence Code (impeachment rules)Free: Florida criminal statutes reference Florida sentencing outcomes by county and charge

Common questions

What is a crimen-falsi offense and why does it matter for a criminal case?: Crimen falsi means a crime of dishonesty or false statement, perjury, false official statements or reports, falsifying records, forgery, and fraud. Under Federal Rule of Evidence 608(b) and the Brady/Giglio disclosure rules, an officer's history of such conduct bears on their character for truthfulness.
Does the 14.4% mean 1 in 7 of all Florida officers?: No. The denominator is discipline records, not the whole force: 938 of 6,513 FDLE/CJSTC certification-discipline records (2012–2026), which cover 5,922 distinct officers, 911 of whom (15.4%) carry at least one crimen-falsi record. It is not a rate across all certified Florida officers.
Are dismissed or unfounded charges counted?: No. Offense records often list multiple charges with disposition notes. Before classifying, any clause carrying a dismissal, nolle prosequi, acquittal, exoneration, unfounded, or cleared marker is removed, so a charge that did not stick is never counted as a truthfulness offense. This is a deliberate, conservative choice for defensibility.
How do I find out if a specific Florida officer has a crimen-falsi record?: Use the Officer Lookup tool at /officer-lookup. It searches the same FDLE/CJSTC source and returns the verbatim offense text, outcome, agency, and date, each tied to the underlying public record.
Is FDLE/CJSTC discipline data the same as a Brady list?: No. Brady/Giglio lists are maintained by individual State Attorney offices and are not public. FDLE certification-discipline records are public and overlap with that material, but a State Attorney's internal list may hold more. This dataset is a public starting point, not a substitute for a full discovery and disclosure demand.
Does this name any individual officer?: No, aggregate only. It identifies no individual officer. To check a specific officer, use the Officer Lookup tool, which ties every row to the underlying public record.