Sponsors (10)
The bill improves transparency and creates data-driven opportunities to reduce harmful police encounters with people with mental illness, but it adds federal and local costs and carries modest privacy and administrative risks.
People with mental illness and law-enforcement agencies: annual, deidentified data collection and analysis will improve understanding of police interactions and enable targeted training or policy changes to reduce harmful encounters.
Taxpayers and the public: Congress and the public will receive an annual summary, increasing transparency and oversight of policing practices involving mental illness.
People involved in incidents (including people with mental illness): even deidentified datasets create some risk of reidentification that could expose private information about individuals.
State and local governments and police departments: complying with standardized data collection and reporting will create administrative burdens and costs for local agencies.
Taxpayers and federal priorities: collecting, analyzing, and publishing the data will require federal funding, potentially increasing federal spending or diverting resources from other DOJ priorities.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Directs DOJ to collect and publish annual, non‑identifying data on law enforcement interactions with people with mental illness and authorizes funding for FY2026–2036.
Requires the Department of Justice to collect and publish annual, non‑identifying data on law enforcement interactions with people who have mental illness, in consultation with the Department of Health and Human Services (including SAMHSA). The Attorney General must set collection guidelines, use the data only for research and statistics (protecting victim identity), and provide an annual public and congressional summary. The bill authorizes funding as needed for fiscal years 2026–2036 and adopts an existing legal definition of "mental illness."
Introduced May 29, 2025 by Wesley Bell · Last progress May 29, 2025