Cost of Police Misconduct Act of 2020

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 8908 To require Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies to report information related to allegations of misconduct of law enforcement offi- cers to the Attorney General, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DECEMBER 9, 2020 Mr. BEYER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To require Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies to report information related to allegations of misconduct of law enforcement officers to the Attorney General, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Cost of Police Mis- 4 conduct Act of 2020’’. 5 SEC. 2. REPORTING REQUIREMENT. 6 (a) IDENTIFICATION REQUIREMENT.— 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:45 Dec 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8908.IH H8908 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 8908 IH (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 1 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Attorney 2 General shall identify— 3 (A) the total number of Federal law en- 4 forcement agencies in the Federal Government; 5 and 6 (B) the name of each Federal law enforce- 7 ment agency in the Federal Government. 8 (2) PUBLICATION.—The Attorney General shall 9 make publicly available on the internet website of 10 the Department of Justice the information under 11 paragraph (1), and update such identification as 12 necessary. 13 (b) REPORTING REQUIREMENT.—Not later than 120 14 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, a Federal 15 law enforcement agency identified under subsection (a)(2) 16 shall report to the Attorney General, on a monthly basis 17 and pursuant to guidelines established by the Attorney 18 General, for the preceding month and with respect to the 19 Federal law enforcement agency, the following informa- 20 tion: 21 (1) The total number of allegations of mis- 22 conduct by a Federal law enforcement officer. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:45 Dec 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8908.IH H8908 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 8908 IH (2) The total number of judgements or settle- 1 ments with respect to allegations of misconduct by 2 a Federal law enforcement officer. 3 (3) For each allegation of misconduct identified 4 in paragraph (1) or a judgement or settlement with 5 respect to allegations of misconduct identified in 6 paragraph (2): 7 (A) The Federal law enforcement agency 8 that employed the officer involved. 9 (B) The race, ethnicity, sex, and age of 10 each officer and civilian involved. 11 (C) The year in which the allegation took 12 place. 13 (D) The year in which the allegation was 14 reported. 15 (E) The type of allegation, which may in- 16 clude a body camera violation (whether a failure 17 to wear or record), use of force (including the 18 type of force), a collision, racial profiling, neg- 19 ligence, property damage, sexual harassment or 20 assault, false testimony, wrongful death, and 21 wrongful imprisonment. 22 (F) Any personnel action taken by the offi- 23 cer involved, which may include resignation or 24 retirement. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:45 Dec 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8908.IH H8908 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 8908 IH (G) Any personnel action taken by the law 1 enforcement agency involved, which may include 2 termination, demotion, or relocation of the offi- 3 cer involved. 4 (H) The amount paid pursuant to a judge- 5 ment or settlement (and related court fees) with 6 respect to such allegation. 7 (I) The source of money used to pay a 8 judgement or settlement (and related court 9 fees) identified under subparagraph (F), includ- 10 ing general operating budget, law enforcement 11 agency budget, or bonds. 12 (4) The total amount paid pursuant to such 13 judgements and settlements (and related court fees) 14 by Federal law enforcement agencies. 15 (c) REPORTING REQUIREMENT FOR STATE AND 16 LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT.— 17 (1) REQUIREMENT FOR STATE AND LOCAL LAW 18 ENFORCEMENT.—For each fiscal year beginning 19 after the expiration of the period specified in para- 20 graph (2)(A) in which a State or unit of local gov- 21 ernment receives funds under a program referred to 22 in paragraph (2)(B), the State or unit of local gov- 23 ernment shall submit to the Attorney General, on a 24 monthly basis and pursuant to guidelines established 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:45 Dec 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8908.IH H8908 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 8908 IH by the Attorney General, for the preceding month 1 and with respect to each law enforcement agency in 2 the State or unit of local government, a report sub- 3 stantially similar to the report under subsection (b). 4 (2) COMPLIANCE AND INELIGIBILITY.— 5 (A) COMPLIANCE DATE.—Each State or 6 unit of local government shall have not more 7 than 120 days from the date of the enactment 8 of this Act to comply with the requirement 9 under paragraph (1), except that the Attorney 10 General may grant an additional 120 days to a 11 State or unit of local government that is mak- 12 ing good faith efforts to comply with such re- 13 quirement. 14 (B) INELIGIBILITY FOR FUNDS.—For any 15 fiscal year beginning after the expiration of the 16 period specified in subparagraph (A), a State or 17 unit of local government that fails to comply 18 with the requirement under paragraph (1), shall 19 be subject to not more than a 10-percent reduc- 20 tion of the funds that would otherwise be allo- 21 cated for that fiscal year to the State or unit 22 of local government under subpart 1 of part E 23 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:44 Dec 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8908.IH H8908 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 8908 IH Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10151 et 1 seq.). 2 (3) REALLOCATION.—Amounts not allocated 3 under a program referred to in paragraph (2)(B) to 4 a State or unit of local government for failure to 5 fully comply with paragraph (1) shall be reallocated 6 under that program to States or units of local gov- 7 ernment that have not failed to comply with such re- 8 quirement. 9 (4) OPEN-SOURCE DATA.—Not later than 30 10 days after each date on which the Attorney General 11 receives information reported under paragraph (1) 12 from a State or unit of local government, the Attor- 13 ney General shall verify such information reported 14 using open-source data, as practicable, including 15 using data from newspaper and court records. 16 (d) STUDY AND REPORTS REQUIRED.— 17 (1) STUDY.— 18 (A) IN GENERAL.—Following two years of 19 data collected under subsections (b) and (c), the 20 Comptroller General shall carry out a study on 21 such data, including— 22 (i) the number of Federal, State, and 23 local law enforcement agencies reporting 24 such data to the Attorney General; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:45 Dec 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8908.IH H8908 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 8908 IH (ii) a determination of the leading 1 cause of judgements and settlements (and 2 related court fees) against Federal, State, 3 and local law enforcement agencies; 4 (iii) an analysis of any relationship 5 between the number of judgements and 6 settlements (and related court fees) and 7 the actions taken by Federal, State, or 8 local law enforcement agencies; 9 (iv) recommendations with respect to 10 how a Federal, State, or local law enforce- 11 ment agency may reduce misconduct lead- 12 ing to judgements or settlements (and re- 13 lated court fees); 14 (v) identification of Federal, State, 15 local law enforcement agencies that have 16 spent the most money with respect to 17 judgements and settlements (and related 18 court fees); 19 (vi) the total amount of money spent 20 by Federal, State, and local law enforce- 21 ment agencies on judgements or settle- 22 ments (and related court fees), 23 disaggregated by State; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:45 Dec 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8908.IH H8908 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 8908 IH (vii) the average amount of money 1 spent on judgements or settlements (and 2 related court fees) by— 3 (I) Federal law enforcement 4 agencies; 5 (II) State law enforcement agen- 6 cies; and 7 (III) local law enforcement agen- 8 cies. 9 (B) PUBLICATION.—The Comptroller Gen- 10 eral shall make publicly available through the 11 internet website of the Government Account- 12 ability Office the findings of the study under 13 subparagraph (A). 14 (2) REPORT AND PRESS RELEASE.— 15 (A) IN GENERAL.—Following the comple- 16 tion of the study under paragraph (1), the At- 17 torney General, in consultation with the Comp- 18 troller General, shall prepare and submit to 19 Congress a report that contains the findings of 20 such study and release a press release with re- 21 spect to the study. 22 (B) PRESS RELEASE.—Following the first 23 full year that data is collected under sub- 24 sections (b) and (c) and in addition to the press 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:45 Dec 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8908.IH H8908 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 8908 IH release required under subparagraph (A), the 1 Attorney General shall issue an annual press 2 release summarizing the data collected under 3 subsections (b) and (c) for the year prior to the 4 release of such press release. 5 (3) DATABASE.— 6 (A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year 7 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 8 Attorney General shall create and maintain on- 9 line a searchable database containing all data 10 reported pursuant to subsections (b) and (c), 11 and subject to any otherwise applicable con- 12 fidentiality requirements. Such publication shall 13 not include any personally identifiable informa- 14 tion of any law enforcement officer. 15 (B) DATABASE UPDATES.—The Attorney 16 General shall update the database created 17 under subparagraph (A) on an annual basis 18 with data reported under subsections (b) and 19 (c). 20 (e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 21 (1) LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY.—The term 22 ‘‘law enforcement agency’’ means an agency with the 23 authority to arrest or detain an individual suspected 24 of violating the law in the United States. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:45 Dec 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8908.IH H8908 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 8908 IH (2) ALLEGATION OF MISCONDUCT.—The term 1 ‘‘allegation of misconduct’’ means an allegation by a 2 member of the community or other individual that 3 an officer took illegal or inappropriate action in con- 4 nection with their official duties. 5 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:45 Dec 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H8908.IH H8908 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS