From the thesis: "With the recent push at the national level to transform policing in the United States, this research sought to determine how other professions track the misconduct of their members and how those efforts might be implemented in policy to improve law enforcement professionalism. This project found that the issuance and tracking of law-enforcement officer certification are fragmented or nonexistent in parts of the country. This lack of standardization is problematic for agencies needing to understand the work history of seasoned officers they wish to bring into their ranks. Research was conducted on the licensing structures and tracking of misconduct in the teaching and medical professions. Examining the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification database and the National Practitioners Databank for licensing teachers and medical professionals, respectively, this project found that how these professions track misconduct within their ranks could be implemented at the national level by law enforcement. Ideally, law enforcement would create a hybrid approach by taking aspects of each system researched--self-sustaining funding through subscription fees for queries, self-query capabilities, inclusion of lawsuits associated with officers, and defined misconduct categories that span different jurisdictions--with the goal of standardizing the tracking of officers' sustained misconduct."