To require interviews conducted by officers and employees of Federal law enforcement agencies to be recorded.
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Tiffany (for himself, Mr. Nehls, and Mr. Cline) introduced …
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Federal Interviews Reform Act requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to record all interviews with criminal suspects using audio or video technology. This applies to both in-custody and non-custody interviews, as well as interviews of U.S. citizens abroad.
Who Benefits and How
Criminal Defendants and Their Attorneys: Gain significant procedural protections. Recorded interviews provide verifiable evidence of what was said, reducing disputes about whether confessions or statements were coerced or misrepresented. Defendants benefit from the exclusionary rule making unrecorded statements inadmissible.
Civil Liberties Advocates: Achieve a key reform goal - creating accountability in law enforcement interrogation practices.
Defense Attorneys: Obtain complete records of client interviews for case preparation and cross-examination.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Department of Justice: Must implement new recording infrastructure, train personnel, establish retention systems, and manage 10-year (or indefinite) data storage requirements. Administrative and technology costs increase.
Federal Law Enforcement Officers (FBI, DEA, ATF, etc.): Required to record all suspect interviews, adding procedural steps to investigations. Cannot use unrecorded statements as evidence, changing interrogation dynamics.
Key Provisions
- Mandatory Recording: All suspect interviews by DOJ personnel must be recorded electronically
- No Consent Required: Officers may record without notice to or consent from interviewees
- Exclusionary Rule: Unrecorded statements cannot be offered as government evidence in Federal court
- Retention Requirements: 10-year minimum retention; indefinite for capital offense cases
- 180-Day Implementation: Attorney General must finalize rules within 180 days of enactment
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Requires all interviews of criminal suspects conducted by Department of Justice officers and employees to be audio or video recorded, establishes retention requirements, and makes unrecorded statements inadmissible as evidence in Federal court.
Policy Domains
Federal Interviews Reform Act
Likely Beneficiaries
- Criminal Defendants
- Defense Attorneys
- Civil Liberties Advocates
Likely Burden Bearers
- Department of Justice
- Federal Law Enforcement Officers
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "officers_employees"
- → Officers and employees of the Department of Justice
- "the_attorney_general"
- → Attorney General of the United States
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Any person who is suspected of having committed a criminal offense
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology