FACT SHEET: National Law Enforcement Accountability Database

To strengthen hiring practices by federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial (SLTT) law enforcement agencies and increase transparency and accountability, the Justice Department launched the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD) in December 2023. NLEAD is a centralized repository of official records documenting instances of misconduct as well as commendations and awards for federal law enforcement officers.

• The NLEAD connects all federal law enforcement agencies under one accountability infrastructure. With the NLEAD, law enforcement agency hiring personnel have more accurate and complete information about misconduct in a job candidate’s past. Agencies can make more informed hiring decisions, which enhances both accountability and public safety.
• The NLEAD is accessible only to authorized users to help determine suitability and eligibility of candidates for law enforcement positions.
• On Dec. 18, the Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) published the first public report containing aggregated and anonymized data to maintain transparency and accountability. As required by the Executive Order, BJS will publish the report annually.
• All 90 Executive Branch agencies that employ law enforcement officers have certified to the Department that they have provided to the database all their responsive records (which could include a certification of “no records”). This reporting accounts for the approximately 150,000 Executive Branch law enforcement officers.
• Although agencies outside the Executive Branch are not obligated to use the NLEAD, several additional federal agencies have voluntarily committed to using NLEAD for their law enforcement officers, to increase transparency and accountability.
• The database includes records of instances of misconduct and commendations for current and former federal law enforcement officers that occurred over the past seven years, and the Department will conduct regular periodic compliance reviews to assess data quality. The NLEAD.gov website serves as a clearinghouse for information about the NLEAD and facilitates access to the database for authorized users.
• Consistent with the Executive Order, the Department requires its components that employ law enforcement officers to utilize the NLEAD in making a decision involving an officer’s hiring, job assignment, promotion, or participation on a task force. All Department law enforcement agencies have implemented standard operating procedures to ensure consistency in how NLEAD is utilized.
• Since launching in December 2023, the NLEAD has been searched nearly 10,000 times to assist federal law enforcement agencies in hiring, promotion and job placement decisions. Twenty-five of those searches, or about 0.25% of queries, resulted in a cross-agency match within NLEAD, allowing the vast majority of hiring decisions to proceed without the need to gather additional information from a prior employer. In the instance of a match, agencies gathered additional information about the candidate before determining whether to proceed.
• Based on the BJS report and the Department’s experience administering the NLEAD, it appears to be working as intended. The overwhelming majority of federal law enforcement officers are not in the NLEAD because they have no instances of misconduct. Federal law enforcement agencies are regularly and systematically querying the NLEAD. An officer’s presence in the NLEAD is not disqualifying; rather, it allows hiring and security managers to gather all relevant information about an applicant so they can make a complete and informed decision.

The Department has also recently taken steps to support law enforcement officer accountability efforts at the state and local level:

• The Department is partnering with the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST) and the International Justice and Public Safety Network (Nlets) to allow SLTT law enforcement agencies to query the NLEAD. This will improve accountability for officers moving from federal employment to SLTT
• The Department has awarded funding to 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. In May 2024, IADLEST entered into an agreement with a technology vendor to launch an updated NDI in 2025, with funding provided by the Department. This will improve accountability for officers who have any SLTT employment.
• In May 2023, the Department released accreditation standards for SLTT law enforcement agencies that called for usage of the NDI in connection with officer hiring. This will improve accountability for officers who have any SLTT
• The Department now requires its law enforcement agencies to utilize the NDI in making a decision involving an officer’s hiring or participation on a task force. The Department similarly encourages other federal law enforcement agencies to do the same checks. This will improve accountability for officers moving from SLTT employment to federal employment.