I

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 199

To amend rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to provide for

the confidentiality of a personnel record or personal information of a

law enforcement officer.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JANUARY 3, 2001

Mr. SWEENEY introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL

To amend rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure

to provide for the confidentiality of a personnel record

or personal information of a law enforcement officer.

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 ‘‘Law Enforcement Offi5 cers Privacy Protection Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS.

7 Rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (28

8 U.S.C. App.) is amended by inserting after subdivision

9 (b)(5) the following:
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1 ‘‘(6) LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL

2 RECORDS.—

3 ‘‘(A) A party may obtain discovery of law

4 enforcement personnel records otherwise discov5 erable under subdivision (b)(1) of this rule only

6 upon a showing by the party seeking discovery

7 that there exists a reasonable basis, supported

8 by facts, for contending that the records sought

9 are necessary and material to an issue involved

10 in the pending action.

11 ‘‘(B) The court may, in the court’s discre12 tion and after in camera review of such records,

13 order discovery of such records when the re14 quired showing has been made, subject to a

15 protective order.

16 ‘‘(C) Notwithstanding subdivision (b)(1) of

17 this rule, a party may not obtain discovery of

18 any matter by reason of its relevance with re19 spect to, or its use in leading to the discovery

20 of admissible evidence as to, the existence of the

21 reasonable basis referred to in subdivision

22 (b)(6)(A) of this rule.

23 ‘‘(D) For purposes of this subdivision

24 (b)(6), the term ‘law enforcement personnel

25 records’ means documents in the custody of any
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1 public or private entity (including an individual

2 law enforcement officer) carrying out a law en3 forcement function, or any element of the Fed4 eral Government, a State, or a unit of local gov5 ernment by whose authority that entity carries

6 out that function, to the extent they contain

7 any of the following information:

8 ‘‘(i) Information collected or main9 tained for the purpose of evaluating the

10 performance of a law enforcement officer

11 with respect to that officer’s continued em12 ployment or promotion.

13 ‘‘(ii) Information collected or main14 tained for the purpose of evaluating a can15 didate for hire as a law enforcement offi16 cer.

17 ‘‘(iii) Information of a personal nature

18 concerning a law enforcement officer or a

19 member of that officer’s immediate family.

20 ‘‘(E) For purposes of this subdivision

21 (b)(6), the term ‘law enforcement officer’ means

22 an individual involved in crime and juvenile de23 linquency control or reduction, or enforcement

24 of the laws, including, but not limited to, police,
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1 corrections, probation, parole, and judicial offi2 cers.’’.

3 SEC. 3. APPLICATION OF AMENDMENT.

4 The amendment made by this Act shall apply to any

5 civil action filed after the date of the enactment of this

6 Act.

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