“To establish protocols for the investigation of uses of deadly force by Federal law enforcement officers, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section requires each federal law enforcement agency to establish a protocol for investigating any use of deadly force by its officers—including commencing an investigation on each such occasion—and to make all collected evidence available to appropriate state and local authorities.
This section requires each federal agency's inspector general (IG), if not the original investigator, to conduct an independent review of any investigation into an officer's use of deadly force to verify its thoroughness, protocol compliance, and evidentiary support, with findings of wrongdoing reported to authorities for discipline or prosecution. The section further directs the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) to establish a uniform, governmentwide methodology for reporting such deadly force incidents by federal law enforcement officers and uniform guidelines for investigating them.
This section requires the Council of Inspectors General to submit a report each calendar quarter to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the Senate and House Committees on the Judiciary, and the Comptroller General describing all instances of deadly force used by an officer of a federal law enforcement agency, including any referrals for criminal prosecution. The reported data must (1) include identifying characteristics of the target and officer, such as race or ethnicity, gender, approximate age, and actual or perceived religious affiliation; (2) include the date, time, and location of the incident; (3) identify the target's alleged criminal activity; (4) describe the nature of the deadly force used, including any firearm; (5) provide any agency explanation for the use of deadly force; (6) attach the agency's deadly force guidelines in effect at the time; (7) describe any prior non-lethal efforts to apprehend or subdue the target; and (8) exclude personally identifiable information as defined in section 5.
This section prohibits the public release or disclosure to any person of names or identifying information of law enforcement officers, persons who were targets of deadly force, or other individuals involved in activities for which data is collected under this Act, except for disclosures necessary to comply with the Act, to the individual concerned, or pursuant to litigation. Such information is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). (Thus, this creates a new FOIA exemption for the specified identifying information in covered data.)