Washington, DC (Feb 21, 2025) – The Justice Department has deleted the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database following an executive order from President Trump. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) calls on this Administration to reconsider this decision, which undoes a critical initiative to monitor federal police misconduct and prevent officers from concealing disciplinary records from new departments, thereby perpetuating abuses.
“A national database is an essential step towards transparency for the entire country,” said NACDL President Christopher Wellborn. “Rampant police misconduct cannot go unchecked. Without a central, accessible record of police misconduct, federal officers will continue to abuse with impunity. This is not a partisan issue. President Trump himself suggested this project in 2020, and President Biden implemented its creation. We cannot prevent law enforcement violence if we cannot monitor the officers involved. This executive order will harm communities, decrease public safety, unnecessarily erode public confidence in law enforcement, and undo progress towards meaningful accountability.”
“By shielding these police officers from the public, the Trump Administration has given a nod of approval to police misconduct within our law enforcement ranks,” said NACDL Executive Director Lisa Wayne. “Giving secrecy to egregious behavior is bad for law enforcement who care about good policing and bad for the communities where these police will be allowed to continue to operate under false pretenses. Police officers accused of misconduct must not be allowed to simply start fresh in new departments. President Trump and the Department of Justice must immediately restore this commonsense tool for all of America.”
Between 2020 and 2023, NACDL’s Full Disclosure Project helped defenders build databases tracking misconduct on over 150,000 law enforcement officers. At its conclusion, the project released a report finding that officer misconduct databases improve case outcomes for criminal defendants, limit the ability of officers with significant misconduct histories to testify in court and make arrests, hold prosecutors accountable to fulfill disclosure obligations, strengthen accountability systems, and identify misconduct patterns.
Contacts
Jessie Diamond, Deputy Director, Public Affairs and Communications, (202) 465-7647 or jdiamond@nacdl.org
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is the preeminent organization advancing the mission of the criminal defense bar to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or wrongdoing. A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDL's many thousands of direct members in 28 countries – and 90 state, provincial and local affiliate organizations totaling up to 40,000 attorneys – include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness and promoting a rational and humane criminal legal system.
