I 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 8908 

To require Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies to report 

information related to allegations of misconduct of law enforcement officers to the Attorney General, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 9, 2020 

Mr. BEYER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 

on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To require Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies 

to report information related to allegations of misconduct 

of law enforcement officers to the Attorney General, and 

for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Cost of Police Mis5 conduct Act of 2020’’. 

6 SEC. 2. REPORTING REQUIREMENT. 

7 (a) IDENTIFICATION REQUIREMENT.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 

2 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Attorney 

3 General shall identify— 

4 (A) the total number of Federal law en5 forcement agencies in the Federal Government; 

6 and 

7 (B) the name of each Federal law enforce8 ment agency in the Federal Government. 

9 (2) PUBLICATION.—The Attorney General shall 

10 make publicly available on the internet website of 

11 the Department of Justice the information under 

12 paragraph (1), and update such identification as 

13 necessary. 

14 (b) REPORTING REQUIREMENT.—Not later than 120 

15 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, a Federal 

16 law enforcement agency identified under subsection (a)(2) 

17 shall report to the Attorney General, on a monthly basis 

18 and pursuant to guidelines established by the Attorney 

19 General, for the preceding month and with respect to the 

20 Federal law enforcement agency, the following informa21 tion: 

22 (1) The total number of allegations of mis23 conduct by a Federal law enforcement officer. 


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1 (2) The total number of judgements or settle2 ments with respect to allegations of misconduct by 

3 a Federal law enforcement officer. 

4 (3) For each allegation of misconduct identified 

5 in paragraph (1) or a judgement or settlement with 

6 respect to allegations of misconduct identified in 

7 paragraph (2): 

8 (A) The Federal law enforcement agency 

9 that employed the officer involved. 

10 (B) The race, ethnicity, sex, and age of 

11 each officer and civilian involved. 

12 (C) The year in which the allegation took 

13 place. 

14 (D) The year in which the allegation was 

15 reported. 

16 (E) The type of allegation, which may in17 clude a body camera violation (whether a failure 

18 to wear or record), use of force (including the 

19 type of force), a collision, racial profiling, neg20 ligence, property damage, sexual harassment or 

21 assault, false testimony, wrongful death, and 

22 wrongful imprisonment. 

23 (F) Any personnel action taken by the offi24 cer involved, which may include resignation or 

25 retirement. 


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1 (G) Any personnel action taken by the law 

2 enforcement agency involved, which may include 

3 termination, demotion, or relocation of the offi4 cer involved. 

5 (H) The amount paid pursuant to a judge6 ment or settlement (and related court fees) with 

7 respect to such allegation. 

8 (I) The source of money used to pay a 

9 judgement or settlement (and related court 

10 fees) identified under subparagraph (F), includ11 ing general operating budget, law enforcement 

12 agency budget, or bonds. 

13 (4) The total amount paid pursuant to such 

14 judgements and settlements (and related court fees) 

15 by Federal law enforcement agencies. 

16 (c) REPORTING REQUIREMENT FOR STATE AND

17 LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT.— 

18 (1) REQUIREMENT FOR STATE AND LOCAL LAW

19 ENFORCEMENT.—For each fiscal year beginning 

20 after the expiration of the period specified in para21 graph (2)(A) in which a State or unit of local gov22 ernment receives funds under a program referred to 

23 in paragraph (2)(B), the State or unit of local gov24 ernment shall submit to the Attorney General, on a 

25 monthly basis and pursuant to guidelines established 


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1 by the Attorney General, for the preceding month 

2 and with respect to each law enforcement agency in 

3 the State or unit of local government, a report sub4 stantially similar to the report under subsection (b). 

5 (2) COMPLIANCE AND INELIGIBILITY.— 

6 (A) COMPLIANCE DATE.—Each State or 

7 unit of local government shall have not more 

8 than 120 days from the date of the enactment 

9 of this Act to comply with the requirement 

10 under paragraph (1), except that the Attorney 

11 General may grant an additional 120 days to a 

12 State or unit of local government that is mak13 ing good faith efforts to comply with such re14 quirement. 

15 (B) INELIGIBILITY FOR FUNDS.—For any 

16 fiscal year beginning after the expiration of the 

17 period specified in subparagraph (A), a State or 

18 unit of local government that fails to comply 

19 with the requirement under paragraph (1), shall 

20 be subject to not more than a 10-percent reduc21 tion of the funds that would otherwise be allo22 cated for that fiscal year to the State or unit 

23 of local government under subpart 1 of part E 

24 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and 


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1 Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10151 et 

2 seq.). 

3 (3) REALLOCATION.—Amounts not allocated 

4 under a program referred to in paragraph (2)(B) to 

5 a State or unit of local government for failure to 

6 fully comply with paragraph (1) shall be reallocated 

7 under that program to States or units of local gov8 ernment that have not failed to comply with such re9 quirement. 

10 (4) OPEN-SOURCE DATA.—Not later than 30 

11 days after each date on which the Attorney General 

12 receives information reported under paragraph (1) 

13 from a State or unit of local government, the Attor14 ney General shall verify such information reported 

15 using open-source data, as practicable, including 

16 using data from newspaper and court records. 

17 (d) STUDY AND REPORTS REQUIRED.— 

18 (1) STUDY.— 

19 (A) IN GENERAL.—Following two years of 

20 data collected under subsections (b) and (c), the 

21 Comptroller General shall carry out a study on 

22 such data, including— 

23 (i) the number of Federal, State, and 

24 local law enforcement agencies reporting 

25 such data to the Attorney General; 


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1 (ii) a determination of the leading 

2 cause of judgements and settlements (and 

3 related court fees) against Federal, State, 

4 and local law enforcement agencies; 

5 (iii) an analysis of any relationship 

6 between the number of judgements and 

7 settlements (and related court fees) and 

8 the actions taken by Federal, State, or 

9 local law enforcement agencies; 

10 (iv) recommendations with respect to 

11 how a Federal, State, or local law enforce12 ment agency may reduce misconduct lead13 ing to judgements or settlements (and re14 lated court fees); 

15 (v) identification of Federal, State, 

16 local law enforcement agencies that have 

17 spent the most money with respect to 

18 judgements and settlements (and related 

19 court fees); 

20 (vi) the total amount of money spent 

21 by Federal, State, and local law enforce22 ment agencies on judgements or settle23 ments (and related court fees), 

24 disaggregated by State; and 


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1 (vii) the average amount of money 

2 spent on judgements or settlements (and 

3 related court fees) by— 

4 (I) Federal law enforcement 

5 agencies; 

6 (II) State law enforcement agen7 cies; and 

8 (III) local law enforcement agen9 cies. 

10 (B) PUBLICATION.—The Comptroller Gen11 eral shall make publicly available through the 

12 internet website of the Government Account13 ability Office the findings of the study under 

14 subparagraph (A). 

15 (2) REPORT AND PRESS RELEASE.— 

16 (A) IN GENERAL.—Following the comple17 tion of the study under paragraph (1), the At18 torney General, in consultation with the Comp19 troller General, shall prepare and submit to 

20 Congress a report that contains the findings of 

21 such study and release a press release with re22 spect to the study. 

23 (B) PRESS RELEASE.—Following the first 

24 full year that data is collected under sub25 sections (b) and (c) and in addition to the press 


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1 release required under subparagraph (A), the 

2 Attorney General shall issue an annual press 

3 release summarizing the data collected under 

4 subsections (b) and (c) for the year prior to the 

5 release of such press release. 

6 (3) DATABASE.— 

7 (A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year 

8 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

9 Attorney General shall create and maintain on10 line a searchable database containing all data 

11 reported pursuant to subsections (b) and (c), 

12 and subject to any otherwise applicable con13 fidentiality requirements. Such publication shall 

14 not include any personally identifiable informa15 tion of any law enforcement officer. 

16 (B) DATABASE UPDATES.—The Attorney 

17 General shall update the database created 

18 under subparagraph (A) on an annual basis 

19 with data reported under subsections (b) and 

20 (c). 

21 (e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

22 (1) LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY.—The term 

23 ‘‘law enforcement agency’’ means an agency with the 

24 authority to arrest or detain an individual suspected 

25 of violating the law in the United States. 


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1 (2) ALLEGATION OF MISCONDUCT.—The term 

2 ‘‘allegation of misconduct’’ means an allegation by a 

3 member of the community or other individual that 

4 an officer took illegal or inappropriate action in con5 nection with their official duties. 

Æ 


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