Federal Police Misconduct Database Ceases Operations After 13 Months

Washington, D.C. – The National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD), a federal initiative designed to track misconduct among law enforcement officers, has been decommissioned by the Trump administration, just 13 months after its official launch. The database, established by executive order under former President Joe Biden, aimed to prevent officers with records of misconduct from moving between agencies undetected.President Donald Trump's executive order 14148, issued on January 20, 2025, rescinded the previous mandate that created NLEAD. The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed the database's elimination, stating that "User agencies can no longer query or add data to the NLEAD," and that the department is "decommissioning the NLEAD in accordance with federal standards." This action effectively ends the federal government's centralized effort to catalog officer misconduct.NLEAD was launched on December 18, 2023, following President Biden's Executive Order 14074 in May 2022. Its primary goal was to serve as a repository for official records documenting instances of misconduct, terminations, and resignations under investigation for serious complaints among federal law enforcement officers. Proponents argued such a database was crucial for accountability and rebuilding public trust.However, the database faced criticism for its limited scope, covering only federal officers who constitute approximately 16% of the total law enforcement workforce. A single annual report, released in December 2024, revealed that federal agencies conducted nearly 10,000 searches within the first eight months of 2024, but over 99.7% of these queries were for internal personnel, not for evaluating external candidates. The report also indicated potential data integrity issues and a lower-than-anticipated number of reported incidents.Amidst these developments, Charles Fain Lehman, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and senior editor of City Journal, recently published an article titled "The Case for a National Police Misconduct Registry." As indicated by a tweet from Lehman, the article advocates for a comprehensive registry. This advocacy comes as the debate over police accountability and the tracking of officer misconduct continues, with existing state-level initiatives like the National Decertification Index (NDI) and the private LEWIS Registry operating independently of the now-defunct federal system.