School police officer Warren Favors punched a 15-year-old student after the teen called him “play-play cop” and threatened him in a hallway.

The incident was captured on video that shows Favors tackling the student from behind after the taunts.

“I’m tired of you threatening me [expletive],” Favors told the student, according to case summary records. “You gonna get enough of being disrespectful.”

The 2014 incident left the student with two bone fractures and ended Favors' police career. But it was not the first time Favors had run afoul as a cop. He had resigned in lieu of termination from the Albany Police Department in May 2003 for dishonesty, which he disputed, and Dougherty County School System Police hired him in January 2006.

The second chance he received was hardly a fluke.

Statewide, school system police departments employ officers who have been terminated or resigned under the cloud of an investigation at twice the rate of local police departments, according to an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Actions News.

Roughly 12 percent of the 656 officers working in the state's 31 school police departments have been forced out of a previous job, versus about 6 percent of the officers who work in local police agencies, according to data obtained from the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council (POST), the state agency charged with certifying police.

About the Authors

Keep Reading

Kiley King, an 11th grader who attended Parklane Elementary School in East Point reacts to the Fulton County Board of Education’s vote to close the elementary school on Thursday, Feb 20, 2025. Parents, teachers, students and community members filled the public comment time asking to keep Parklane and Spalding Drive elementary schools open. (Jenni Girtman for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Credit: Jenni Girtman

Featured

State Rep. Matt Reeves, R-Duluth, introduces himself while attending an AAPI mental health event at Norcross High School on Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024. (Ben Gray for the AJC)

Credit: Ben Gray