Sponsor
Lindsey O. Graham
Senator · R-SC
Senator · R-SC
The bill improves law‑enforcement access to and completeness of violent-offender records—potentially helping identify repeat offenders and prompting system fixes—but does so by expanding public access and mandatory data-sharing in ways that significantly raise privacy, discrimination, accuracy, cost, and security risks for affected individuals and governments.
Law enforcement, prosecutors, and state/local criminal-justice agencies will get clearer recommendations and improved procedures for sharing fingerprints, warrants, and criminal histories within 180 days, helping identify repeat violent offenders sooner and improving interjurisdictional investigations.
Community members and local officials will be able to search a centralized public database of people with qualifying violent convictions, giving residents and police another tool to assess local safety risks.
States and localities will receive more complete and regular (quarterly) offender data, improving cross-jurisdictional coordination and case investigations.
People whose convictions are posted (and their families)—especially racial and ethnic minorities and immigrants—face greater privacy invasion and higher risk of harassment, stalking, vigilante action, or community hostility because detailed personal data (addresses, DOB, race, citizenship) is publicly available.
Individuals with past convictions—particularly low-income people—will likely face increased barriers to housing, employment, and reintegration as broad public access to conviction records enables discrimination and long-lasting collateral consequences.
Large-scale aggregation and quarterly updates of sensitive criminal records raise accuracy and security concerns—errors, outdated entries, or breaches could wrongly label people as violent offenders or expose sensitive personal information.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a public Violent Criminal Offender Database and requires states to submit qualifying conviction records or risk losing Byrne JAG funds; directs DOJ to report on records-sharing barriers.
Official title: Establish a publicly accessible database of individuals with convictions for violent crimes, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 30, 2026 by Lindsey O. Graham · Last progress April 30, 2026
Creates a publicly accessible federal “Violent Criminal Offender Database” that lists people with qualifying convictions and requires states to submit qualifying conviction records within 180 days or lose eligibility for Byrne JAG grant distributions; the Attorney General must build and update the searchable database and publicize it. Also requires the Attorney General to report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees within 180 days on how criminal records are shared across jurisdictions, obstacles to sharing, and recommended fixes to improve information flow among law enforcement and prosecutors.