Strengthening trust between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve.
Authorized federal users
Empowering federal hiring
In Executive Order 14074,
Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice
Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety,
the President recognized the importance of
“mak[ing] policing safer and more effective by strengthening trust between law enforcement
officers and the communities they serve.”
One of the many ways to advance that interest is to
“commit to new practices in law enforcement recruitment, hiring, promotion, and retention,
as well as training, oversight, and accountability.”
In furtherance of these goals and to promote new and strengthened practices in the hiring, promotion, and retention of law enforcement officers, the Executive Order directed the Attorney General to establish a National Law Enforcement Accountability Database for official records of federal law enforcement officer misconduct, commendations, and awards.
A Whole of Government Effort
The following Departments and Agencies are representative of the shared interagency commitment to enhance public trust and safety while increasing transparency and accountability through NLEAD. See the full list here.
What is in the NLEAD?
As specified by the Executive Order, the NLEAD includes law enforcement officers who have records that include one of six categories related to officer misconduct.
The NLEAD will include data on commendations and awards when an officer is already in the NLEAD for one of the misconduct categories.
Who can access the NLEAD?
To protect the safety, privacy, and due process rights of law enforcement officers who may be identified, the NLEAD cannot be searched by the public. Access to the NLEAD is limited to authorized users from federal law enforcement agencies for use in the hiring, job assignment, and promotion of law enforcement officers.
In the future, NLEAD aims to offer data access to state and local agencies to support hiring and workforce practices.
How can I learn more?
To promote transparency, and as required by the Executive Order, DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics will publish an annual public report with aggregated and anonymized information on NLEAD data.
This report will be available to the public to understand how federal law enforcement agencies use the database to provide information that will improve the quality of the federal law enforcement workforce.
NLEAD Operations
The National Law Enforcement Accountability Database launched on December 18, 2023, and currently includes records for current and former federal officers who have misconduct information over the past seven years.
State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Law Enforcement Agency Collaboration
To support law enforcement officer accountability efforts at the state and local level, the Department has awarded funding to the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST) to expand its National Decertification Index (NDI). The NDI is a national registry of law enforcement de-certification and revocation actions relating to officer misconduct that is currently used by all 50 states and D.C., and the expansion will include the additional categories of information set forth in the Executive Order. IADLEST entered into an agreement with a technology vendor to launch an updated NDI by May 2025, with funding provided by the Department.
Resources
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Executive Order 14074
Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety.
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DOJ Fact Sheet on Implementing Executive Order 14074 (May 2024 version)
DOJ Fact Sheet on Implementing Executive Order 14074 (May 2023 version)Implementing EO 14074 is part of the Department’s work to advance effective, fair, and constitutional policing, improve conditions of confinement and reentry outcomes, promote officer safety and wellness, and improve data collection and analysis to guide policies and decision making.
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Justice Department Launches National Law Enforcement Accountability Database
The Department of Justice announces the launch of the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database.
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Privacy Impact Assessment for the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD) System
The Privacy Impact Assessment assesses how personally identifiable information is collected, used, shared, and maintained.
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Privacy Act Systems of Records Notice (SORN) for the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database
The DOJ Systems of Records Notice in the Federal Register about the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database.
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Guidance for Federal Agencies’ Use of the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD)
The Attorney General announces new guidance that Federal agencies should follow when querying the NLEAD, requesting information from other Federal agencies after a positive result in the NLEAD, and responding to other Federal agencies’ requests for information after a positive result in the NLEAD.