Sponsors (15)
The bill aims to improve police leadership, wellness, and training quality while increasing transparency and federal oversight, but it does so at the cost of added administrative and financial burdens, risks of uneven state-by-state outcomes, and potential civil liberties concerns if curricula lack adequate safeguards.
Law enforcement command staff (state, local, Tribal) will receive certified leadership, critical-incident, and risk-management training, improving on-the-ground decision-making during emergencies.
Officers will get training on officer wellness and evidence-based problem solving, which can reduce burnout and improve agency practices and safety for officers and communities.
Greater transparency and oversight as the Attorney General must publish agency-level completion data, Congress receives regular reports, and GAO will review the program—giving policymakers and the public better visibility into training adoption and quality.
Smaller and rural agencies may face higher costs and logistical burdens to send command personnel to primarily in-person, peer-to-peer certified trainings, straining tight local budgets.
If curricula are implemented without appropriate safeguards, some communities—particularly racial and ethnic minorities—could face increased surveillance or biased policing outcomes.
Mandating certification, repeated reporting, and a GAO review will create administrative burdens and consume DOJ and federal staff time and resources to track, certify, prepare reports, and publish data.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Directs the Attorney General to create/identify certified, evidence-based in-person curricula for command-level police training, set a certification process, and require reporting and GAO review.
Creates a federal framework for developing, certifying, and reporting on advanced training for command-level law enforcement personnel. The Attorney General must create or identify in-person, evidence-based curricula on leadership, critical incident response, risk management, officer wellness, data analysis, evidence-based decision making, and community trust; set up a certification process for programs that use those curricula; and publish agency completion data. The bill also requires periodic reports to Congress and a GAO review, while preserving state and local authority over law enforcement certification and training.
Official title: Amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to improve the COPS program with respect to training command-level personnel, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 27, 2026 by John Cornyn · Last progress June 15, 2026