As a part of his sweeping Executive Order actions upon returning to office in January, President Donald Trump reversed Executive Order 14074 and eliminated the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD).
The original action, signed by President Biden on May 25, 2022, aimed to restore law enforcement accountability and trust by creating a national database of officer misconduct to prevent unfit individuals from moving between law enforcement agencies. While some have praised President Trump’s decision to reverse it, others have condemned the move as a major setback for police accountability.
Putting politics aside, the key question in this era of government accountability is: Did the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database produce results that justified its existence?
Before addressing that question, it is important to clarify that no one — especially law enforcement leaders — wants unfit or unworthy officers employed in the profession. The problem of “wandering cops” is taken seriously, as the risks of hiring someone else’s problem far outweigh any potential benefits. During his first term, President Trump even proposed and supported a similar officer database, but the effort failed to clear Congress. Just a few years later, President Biden’s version has now met a similar fate.
What was the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD)?
The National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD) was a federal registry established by Executive Order 14074 to track officer misconduct and prevent unfit individuals from moving between law enforcement agencies. It aimed to enhance accountability and trust by providing agencies with access to disciplinary records, terminations, and other relevant data when making hiring decisions.
Was the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD) effective?
President Biden promoted the NLEAD as a measure to restore trust and improve police-community relations following the death of George Floyd. However, the national database of officer misconduct he created applied only to federal law enforcement officers, who make up just 16% of the total law enforcement workforce. As a result, its impact on state and local police agencies remained unclear.
Additionally, the database tracked officers decertified by their agency or another certification authority, yet federal agencies do not certify or decertify their officers. Decertifications of state and local officers were already recorded in the National Decertification Index.
Ultimately, the database’s limitations meant it could only serve as a research tool for federal agencies hiring personnel from other federal agencies. State and local officers with a history of misconduct seeking employment in federal agencies would not be identified in the database.
Research study identifies challenges of the NLEAD
Shortly after President Biden authorized the creation of the NLEAD, the U.S. Department of Justice funded a feasibility study to examine the challenges of developing and implementing a federal officer database. The research, conducted by Dr. Matthew Hickman of Seattle University, was published on February 2, 2023. Notably, Dr. Hickman’s final report was not released by the DOJ but was instead made public by the Office of Justice Programs’ National Criminal Justice Reference Service.
In his research, Dr. Hickman projected the number of officer misconduct incidents that would be reported and tracked by NLEAD, using historical data from local, state, and federal agencies. He also analyzed the types and categories of misconduct expected to be recorded, examining the specific data elements within each category and assessing the anticipated level of data integrity for each.
Dr. Hickman’s research projected that approximately 1,720 incidents of misconduct by federal officers would be reported to the NLEAD annually, based on the actual number of federal officers employed as stated in the NLEAD Annual Report, December 2024. Of those yearly incidents, he estimated that 1,258 cases (73%) would stem from one of three sources:
- Sustained complaints for serious misconduct
- Disciplinary actions for serious misconduct
- Resignations and retirements while under investigation for serious misconduct
These three categories are important to the validity of the overall data, as Dr. Hickman reported that each could only be expected to have a “medium level” of data integrity. This means the data could be significantly flawed due to known and anticipated challenges that prevent it from being complete, accurate and consistent.
Dr. Hickman explained that, for example, complaints and disciplinary action for cases of serious misconduct were rated at a medium level of integrity due to the “somewhat idiosyncratic nature of complaint processing and discipline” across the many federal agencies required to report to the NLEAD. In other words, agencies do not define “serious” misconduct uniformly, nor do they impose disciplinary actions in a consistent manner. Similarly, resignations or retirements while under investigation may not always be recorded or reported as such, further impacting the reliability of the data.
Analyzing the only annual report of NLEAD
Due to its short lifespan, only one annual report on the NLEAD was published by the DOJ (available in full below). Released in December 2024, the report analyzed all data collected through the 2023 calendar year. Notable findings from the report included:
- A total of 4,790 incidents of misconduct were reported by 90 separate federal agencies in the six years between 2018 and 2023. Of these, only 365 incidents were reported in 2023, after the authorization of the NLEAD. The rest were compiled from historical records that may or may not have met the NLEAD requirements for reporting at the time that the individual records were created.
- 47% of federal law enforcement agencies reported no incidents of misconduct, as defined by the NLEAD, between 2018 and 2023.
- Of the approximately 148,280 federal law enforcement officers active in 2023, only 365 incidents of misconduct were reported. Although the 2024 NLEAD report did not include specific categories of misconduct for those 365 incidents, using historical data and Dr. Hickman’s research it can be approximated that over 250 of those cases were of the “medium” level of data integrity because of concerns of the completeness and accuracy of the data itself.
- The total number of incidents reported to the NLEAD from 2018 to 2023 fell short of Dr. Hickman’s historical analysis and predictions by a total of 54% for the entire six years, and by 79% in 2023 alone.
The final assessment of the NLEAD’s purpose and effectiveness must compare its stated goal with its actual results. As noted earlier, the primary objective was to increase police accountability by preventing officers with a history of misconduct from transferring between departments. The database was intended to serve as a resource for agencies when evaluating potential hires from outside their department.
The 2024 Annual Report of the NLEAD confirmed that federal agencies conducted 9,985 searches of the database in the first eight months of 2024. However, despite nearly 10,000 queries, only 25 searches were made by agencies seeking information on an officer from outside their own department. Remarkably, the report revealed that over 99.7% of all searches were conducted by federal agencies reviewing their own personnel, rather than evaluating external candidates.
While efforts to improve police accountability and professionalism should be applauded and supported at every opportunity, by all accounts the results of the NLEAD fell short.
