Sponsors (6)
Introduced May 29, 2025 by Ilhan Omar · Last progress May 29, 2025
The bill creates a stronger, federally empowered, and better‑resourced system for investigating serious police uses of force and supporting affected families while increasing federal oversight, reporting, and costs—and raising tensions over privacy, local control, and administrative burdens.
Victims, families, and affected communities will have independent federal investigations of officer-involved shootings, in-custody deaths, and serious use-of-force incidents, increasing accountability and transparency.
The public, Congress, and local officials get standardized reports, published data, and Board recommendations that improve transparency and allow monitoring of policing practices and reform progress.
Families of civilians killed or seriously injured by law enforcement will receive a federal point of contact and timely, nonprofit-provided emotional and logistical support (counseling, briefings, travel/contact assistance).
State and local law enforcement and governments face substantial new administrative, investigative, and compliance costs (staff time, reporting, evidence production, training), which will also increase taxpayer expenditures.
Jurisdictional tension and reduced local control: federal investigation and enforcement authorities, grant conditioning, and public appraisals can create conflicts with state/local officials, prosecutors, and police oversight bodies.
Broad access, mandatory collection, and public disclosure of records (including autopsies and investigation materials) raise privacy, cultural, and civil‑liberties concerns for individuals involved in incidents.
Based on analysis of 17 sections of legislative text.
Creates a national Board with sweeping investigatory powers over police use-of-force incidents, requires recipient jurisdictions to respond to and implement recommendations, and conditions certain federal grants on compliance.
Creates an independent federal Board with broad power to investigate deaths in police custody, officer-involved shootings, and uses of force that cause severe injury. The Board can inspect scenes, seize and test weapons/evidence, order autopsies, issue findings and recommendations, hold hearings, subpoena witnesses and records nationwide, and make many investigation records public except where protected by law. Requires recipients of federal Byrne/JAG grants to respond to and implement Board recommendations or face reductions in funding; establishes family support services after qualifying incidents; limits public disclosure and discovery of body‑camera footage in most civil/criminal cases; and sets up oversight and audit requirements (GAO and DOJ Inspector General), annual reporting to Congress, and funding authority for the Board, including fee collection and reimbursement arrangements.