A recent executive order from President Donald Trump has eliminated a database designed to track police officers accused of misconduct.
The database was originally set up to help rebuild public trust in law enforcement by documenting cases of officers abusing their power. However, following Trump’s directive, it has now been removed.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has confirmed that the nationwide system, which identified officers involved in misconduct, has been officially shut down by the Trump administration.
The index, which documented nearly 150,000 federal officers and agents accused of misconduct, was designed to prevent problem officers from simply transferring to a new department and starting fresh.
It was established in response to the death of George Floyd in May 2020, an event that sparked widespread outrage across the U.S. and beyond.
At the time, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pinned Floyd to the ground, kneeling on his neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds after detaining him over a suspected counterfeit bill.
Floyd’s final words, “I can’t breathe,” became a powerful symbol for protests against police brutality and racial injustice.
Chauvin, who was later dismissed from the force, was convicted of Floyd’s murder and sentenced to 22 years in prison. In July 2022, he received an additional 20-year sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights.
The idea of a database to track corrupt officers was first suggested to President Trump during his first term, with his proposal emerging in 2020 following George Floyd’s death.
It was former President Joe Biden who took action on the concept, officially establishing the system two years later through an executive order.
However, among the many executive orders Trump has signed since returning to office, one specifically revoked Biden’s measure, effectively dismantling the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database.
The Trump administration justified the decision by claiming the order had introduced “deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical practices” across federal agencies.
Despite only launching in December 2023, all 90 executive branch agencies had already submitted thousands of disciplinary records on officers dating back to 2017, according to a DOJ report released that same month.
Speaking to The Washington Post, Thomas Abt, director of the Violence Reduction Center at the University of Maryland, emphasized the importance of such a system, stating, “Everyone, cops and communities alike, has an interest in keeping officers with histories of serious misconduct from rejoining the profession. Nonpartisan public safety reforms like these should be placed above politics and maintained across administrations.”
Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, also weighed in, telling the publication, “Trump has made clear through actions such as this that he doesn’t think law enforcement accountability advances public safety.”