Sponsors
The bill standardizes and centralizes reporting on deadly-force incidents to improve oversight, research, and grant accountability while protecting identities—but it imposes privacy risks, administrative costs, reduced public naming transparency, and potential funding penalties that may strain smaller jurisdictions.
All communities gain a centralized, standardized federal dataset on every instance of deadly force reported to DOJ/BJS, improving transparency and enabling evidence-based oversight, research, and policy changes to reduce deadly encounters.
State and local governments that comply keep full Byrne JAG funding, creating a strong financial incentive to report and improving oversight of how public-safety grant funds are used.
People named in records (officers and subjects) are protected from public exposure by blocking release of identifying information, reducing risk of harassment or threats and encouraging candid internal reporting.
States and localities that fail to comply risk losing 10% of next year's Byrne JAG grant funding, which could significantly reduce resources for public-safety programs—especially in smaller or resource-constrained jurisdictions.
The FOIA exemption that blocks release of identifying information reduces public transparency and limits journalists' and victims' families' ability to identify and evaluate agency actions.
Collecting and publishing detailed deadly-force data (including demographic details) creates a risk of reidentification or disclosure of sensitive cases if safeguards are imperfect, threatening privacy for subjects and officers.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Requires federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to collect standardized data on every instance an officer uses deadly force, submit that data to the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, and permits public reporting of de-identified results. The Attorney General must issue regulations within six months, agencies must retain records for four years, personally identifying information is blocked from public release (with narrow exceptions), and states or localities that substantially fail to report may lose 10% of their next-year Byrne JAG grant funding.
Introduced February 12, 2025 by Stephen Cohen · Last progress February 12, 2025