Sponsors (4)
The bill expands federal support for technology to reduce dangerous high‑speed pursuits and improve cross‑jurisdiction coordination, but it increases surveillance capacity, legal/operational risks, and ongoing costs that could affect privacy, public trust, and local budgets.
Local and state law enforcement agencies can acquire vehicle‑disabling systems, pursuit bumpers, and drones to help prevent or safely end high‑speed chases, potentially reducing crash injuries and fatalities for drivers, passengers, and bystanders.
State, local, and tribal grant recipients gain federal funding and flexibility to adopt technology‑based pursuit‑management tools without relying on local budgets, lowering the upfront financial barrier to modernizing pursuit response.
Authorizing a broader range of equipment supports coordinated, multi‑jurisdictional responses and regional consortia to manage pursuits across boundaries, improving operational coordination between neighboring agencies.
Residents in urban and tribal communities could face increased police surveillance from funded drones and vehicle‑tracking technologies, raising privacy and civil‑liberties concerns.
Using vehicle‑disabling devices or pursuit bumpers carries risks of property damage, injury, escalation of encounters, and municipal liability that could harm community trust and expose local governments to legal costs.
Purchasing, operating, training for, and maintaining high‑tech systems (drones, vehicle‑disablers) will create ongoing costs that local and state budgets or future grants must cover, potentially straining resources.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Allows DOJ community policing grant funds to be used to procure vehicle‑disabling systems, police bumper systems, drones, and related tech to prevent or de‑escalate high‑speed pursuits.
Official title: To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to authorize law enforcement agencies to use COPS grants for equipment to assist in the prevention and de-escalation of high-speed vehicular pursuits.
Introduced April 9, 2026 by Laura Friedman · Last progress April 9, 2026
Amends the Justice Department’s public safety and community policing grant program to permit grants to buy equipment and technologies to prevent and de-escalate high-speed vehicle pursuits. Eligible purchases explicitly include vehicle-disabling systems, police bumper systems, and drones, and the change applies to the program’s existing grantees (states, local governments, tribes, nonprofits, and multi-jurisdictional consortia).