Improving Data Availability to Promote Effective Policing (US0147)

As President Biden underscored in Executive Order 14074 on Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing and Crim- inal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety, an effective criminal justice system depends on public trust, and public trust in turn requires transparency and accountability. To support greater transparency and accountability in our criminal justice system, the Executive Order directed the Attorney General to establish the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database as a centralized repository of official records document- ing instances of law enforcement officer misconduct as well as commendations and awards for all Federal law enforcement agencies. The U.S. Department of Justice will also encourage State, Tribal, territorial, local, and other law enforcement agencies to contribute to and use the database. In coming years, the Federal Government commits to assessing the feasibility of what database records may be accessible to the public, taking into account the critical need for public trust, transparency and accountability, as well as safety, privacy, and due process concerns. This includes publishing regular public reports based on anonymized data from the database once the database is established.

The Administration commits to meeting the data-related objectives of Executive Order 14074 through the Sub- committee on Equitable Data, described above. In turn, the Subcommittee commits to launching an interagency working group on Criminal Justice Statistics with representatives from relevant offices across the Federal Gov- ernment. The Working Group and the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy commit to issuing a report to the President and the public that assesses current data collection, use, and transparency practices with respect to law enforcement activities, including calls for service, searches, stops, frisks, seizures, arrests, complaints, law enforcement demographics, and civil asset forfeiture. To inform that report, the Working Group will launch a 60- day comment period and host a series of listening sessions to solicit input from members of the public across the nation. The Working Group will look for feedback on how to improve law enforcement agency data collection, use, and transparency to inform policies, protocols, and procedures that will result in more equitable, effective, and accountable policing outcomes.

Action Plan Review

Commitment 35: Effective and accountable policing and criminal justice
Implementing agency: National Science and Technology Council, Office of Science and Technology Policy.

For a complete description of the commitment, see page 19 in the U.S. 2022–2024 action plan: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/United-States_Action-Plan_2022-2024_December.pdf.

Context and objectives
As with several others in NAP5, the point of departure of this commitment is an executive order. Issued in May 2022, Executive Order 14074 on Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing, and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety directed the Attorney General to establish the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database, a centralized repository of official records documenting instances of law enforcement officer misconduct. [25]

The text of the commitment specifies that the Department of Justice “will also encourage state, tribal, territorial, local, and other law enforcement agencies to contribute to and use the database.” Additionally, it states that “in coming years, the federal government commits to assessing the feasibility of what database records may be accessible to the public, taking into account the critical need for public trust, transparency, and accountability, as well as safety, privacy, and due process concerns. This includes publishing regular public reports based on anonymized data from the database once the database is established.” [26]

These two long-term goals, however, do not seem to be part of what the commitment proposes to accomplish over the next two years. What the text explicitly commits to is “meeting the data-related objectives of Executive Order 14074.” [27] In practice, this translates into the establishment of an inter-agency working group on criminal justice statistics that will go on to issue a report assessing current data collection, use, and transparency practices with respect to law enforcement activities, including calls for service, searches, stops, frisks, seizures, arrests, complaints, law enforcement demographics, and civil asset forfeiture.

The commitment’s main output will therefore be a report that will be submitted to the president and made available to the public, making it relevant to the OGP value of transparency. The text specifies that, to inform the report, the working group will seek input from the public, which also makes the commitment relevant to the value of civic participation.

The subject matter of the commitment is very important in the present national context, and this has been readily acknowledged by civil society groups that have been monitoring the implementation of Executive Order 14074 since it was issued. [28]

Potential for results: Modest
While the theme is important, the proposed steps to be taken are relatively modest. The commitment does not concern the contents of Executive Order 14074—which are more extensive, or the database itself, which in fact should already be in place—but the production of a diagnostics report. In that sense, it is only a preliminary step meant to kick off a process that could—or could not—produce any further results.