The U.S. Department of Justice has removed a database tracking misconduct by federal law enforcement officers, stating it is no longer active. This action followed an executive order from Donald Trump that rescinded a previous order from Joe Biden establishing the database. Archived records show that as of January 20, 2024, the database contained nearly 4,800 records of misconduct by federal officers across approximately 150,000 individuals. The National Association of Police Organizations criticized the database for including 'minor incidents' that could harm the reputations of "good" officers.
Executive Order 14074, signed by President Biden on May 25, 2022, established the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD)12. The order was signed to mark two years since George Floyd's killing and required federal agencies to track misconduct incidents among federal law enforcement officers
The database was operational from December 2023 until its decommissioning.
Notably, the concept of a federal police misconduct database was actually first proposed by Trump himself in Executive Order 13929 ("Safe Policing for Safe Communities") on June 16, 2020, though implementation didn't begin until Biden's EO 14074.
The Henry A. Wallace Police Crime Database, maintained by Bowling Green State University, continues to track criminal arrests of law enforcement officers. However, this database only covers non-federal sworn law enforcement officers and includes data from 2005-2019, tracking 18,032 criminal arrest cases involving 14,722 individual officers from state, local, and special law enforcement agencies.
The National Decertification Index remains operational, which is a separate registry tracking state and local police officers who have lost their certifications or licenses due to misconduct.
These databases are distinct from the now-defunct NLEAD as they focus on different aspects of law enforcement misconduct and don't include federal officers.