YourVoice.Now Summary
Civil LibertiesCriminal Justice & Due ProcessTransparency & AccountabilityWorkers & JobsWould let you sue police who violate your rights, ban chokeholds and no-knock drug raids, and put misconduct records online.
Civil Liberties
An officer sued for violating your rights could no longer escape the case by saying they acted in good faith, or that the law was not clearly settled. This covers local police and federal investigators.
Federal, state, and local officers could not use race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or sexual orientation to decide whom to stop, question, or search. A person stopped that way could sue to stop the practice.
Federal agents would have to announce who they are and why they are there before searching a home in a drug case. States would lose community policing grants unless they ban no-knock drug warrants too.
Federal body cameras and patrol car cameras could not use face recognition, and their footage could not be run through it later. Federal grant money for local body cameras could not pay for it either.
The Defense Department could no longer hand police free firearms, ammunition, grenades, drones, silencers, or armored vehicles. Gear could also no longer be given out for drug or border enforcement.
Before a federal officer enters your home without a warrant, they must ask whether you want the body camera switched off, and switch it off if you say yes. They must ask crime victims and anonymous tipsters the same question.
Criminal Justice & Due Process
Today a federal prosecutor must prove an officer acted willfully, meaning on purpose. This bill would allow a conviction when the officer acted knowingly or recklessly.
It would become a federal crime, punishable by up to 15 years, for anyone acting under color of law to have sex with a person in custody. The person's consent could not be used as a defense.
If a federal officer fails to record, tampers with footage, or destroys it, a court would presume the missing video helped the criminal defendant or the person suing. The officer would also face discipline.
The federal civil rights crime for misconduct by an officer could no longer carry a death sentence. Prison time would remain the maximum punishment.
States and cities would lose two large federal police grants unless they ban chokeholds and neck holds. Federal law would also treat a chokehold as illegal punishment, so an officer could be charged.
A federal officer could use force only after other options were exhausted, and deadly force only to stop imminent death or serious injury. States would lose grant money unless they passed a matching law.
Transparency & Accountability
Federal officers would have to wear body cameras and switch them on for every call and every stop. Patrol cars would need in-car cameras able to record for 10 hours or more.
A national registry would let anyone look up an officer's complaints, discipline, firings, lawsuits, and settlements tied to force or racial profiling. The Justice Department would have 180 days to set it up.
States taking federal police grants would report every use of force each quarter, including deaths in custody and the race, age, and gender of the person. The Justice Department would publish the results yearly.
Anyone could request federal body camera footage of a specific event. Requests covering a person killed, shot, or badly hurt would have to be answered within five days.
A police department would have to post public notice for at least 30 days before asking the Pentagon for surplus equipment. It would also need approval from the city council or other local governing body.
Names of officers, complainants, and others in the racial profiling data could not be released publicly or obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. A person could still get their own record.
Workers & Jobs
Every federal officer would have to finish training on racial profiling, implicit bias, and the duty to step in when another officer uses excessive force. States would lose grant money unless their officers did the same.
A police department could not receive money from two large federal grant programs if its contract, including a union agreement, blocks the Justice Department from enforcing a misconduct case or conflicts with a consent decree.
More about this bill
If police violated your rights, you could sue the officer in court. Officers could no longer argue they acted in good faith. They also could not argue that the law was unclear at the time. That shield, known as qualified immunity, would end for local police and federal agents. Federal prosecutors could charge an officer who acted recklessly, not just on purpose. Federal officers could use force only after trying other options first. Deadly force would be allowed only as a last resort to stop death or serious injury. Chokeholds and neck holds would be off the table. States would have to ban them to keep two large federal police grants. Federal agents would have to knock and announce before drug searches. Police could not stop or search you because of your race or religion. Federal officers would wear body cameras on every call and stop. You could ask an officer to turn the camera off inside your home. The cameras could not use face recognition software. Anyone could look up an officer's complaints, discipline, and firings in a new public registry. The Justice Department would have to build it within 180 days. The bill would send $750 million over three years to states that use outside prosecutors for police killings. Another $100 million a year would pay for misconduct investigations. The Pentagon could no longer give police grenades, drones, silencers, or armored vehicles. Most rules for state and local police would start one year after the bill became law.
Congressional Summary
This bill addresses a wide range of policies and issues regarding policing practices and law enforcement accountability. It increases accountability for law enforcement misconduct, restricts the use of certain policing practices, enhances transparency and data collection, and establishes best practices and training requirements.The bill enhances existing enforcement mechanisms to remedy violations by law enforcement. Among other things, it does the following:lowers the criminal intent standard—from willful to knowing or reckless—to convict a law enforcement officer for misconduct in a federal prosecution,limits qualified immunity as a defense to liability in a private civil action against a law enforcement officer, andgrants administrative subpoena power to the Department of Justice (DOJ) in pattern-or-practice investigations.It establishes a framework to prevent and remedy racial profiling by law enforcement at the federal, state, and local levels. It also limits the unnecessary use of force and restricts the use of no-knock warrants, chokeholds, and carotid holds.The bill creates a national registry—the National Police Misconduct Registry—to compile data on complaints and records of police misconduct. It also establishes new reporting requirements, including on the use of force, officer misconduct, and routine policing practices (e.g., stops and searches).Finally, it directs DOJ to create uniform accreditation standards for law enforcement agencies and requires law enforcement officers to complete training on racial profiling, implicit bias, and the duty to intervene when another officer uses excessive force.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in House
- Action Date
- 2025-09-15
- Date Added
- 2026-04-06
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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