HR5361-119

What This Bill Does

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2025 is a comprehensive federal policing reform package. It limits good-faith and clearly-established-law immunity defenses in civil-rights suits against local law enforcement officers and federal investigative or law enforcement officers. It expands DOJ pattern-or-practice authority to include prosecutors, gives the Attorney General subpoena power, allows state attorneys general to bring similar civil actions, requires annual public DOJ reporting, and authorizes grants for state pattern-or-practice investigations. It authorizes grants for independent investigations of law enforcement deadly-force cases. It directs DOJ to analyze and recommend accreditation standards, requires some grant applicants to spend portions of awards on management, training, hiring, oversight, accreditation, racial-profiling best practices, and body-camera policies, and authorizes $25 million for DOJ civil-rights enforcement, $3.3 million for Community Relations Service conflict resolution, and $5 million annually for a Task Force on Law Enforcement Oversight. It requires broad federal, state, tribal, and local law enforcement data collection; creates a National Police Misconduct Registry; conditions Byrne grants on certification and decertification programs and registry checks; creates quarterly use-of-force reporting and small-agency grants; bars racial profiling and creates private enforcement; requires racial-profiling complaint procedures, data collection, publication, privacy limits, regulations, and reports; requires racial bias and duty-to-intervene training; conditions COPS or Byrne funds on bans for no-knock drug warrants and chokeholds; sets federal force standards through the PEACE Act; restricts transfer of certain military equipment; authorizes public-safety innovation grants; imposes federal body-camera and patrol-vehicle camera rules while banning facial recognition use on required cameras; funds state, local, and tribal body-camera programs; and criminalizes sexual acts under color of law while conditioning COPS grants on state laws covering that misconduct.

Who Benefits and How

Civil rights plaintiffs benefit because officers cannot defeat covered claims merely by invoking good faith or lack of clearly established law. Communities affected by police misconduct benefit from stronger DOJ pattern-or-practice investigations, misconduct registries, use-of-force data, racial-profiling enforcement, and camera policies. State attorneys general benefit from authority and grant support to pursue pattern-or-practice investigations. Community-based organizations benefit from grant programs, accreditation consultation, public-safety innovation task forces, and racial-profiling complaint procedures.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Local law enforcement officers face greater civil liability, registry reporting, certification review, use-of-force restrictions, and misconduct transparency. State law enforcement agencies must report data, adopt certification and decertification systems, satisfy grant conditions, and enforce bans on no-knock drug warrants, chokeholds, and sexual misconduct under color of law. Federal law enforcement agencies must complete training, wear body cameras, follow force standards, report use-of-force data, and follow camera and facial-recognition restrictions. Department of Justice staff must write regulations, run registries, administer grants, audit compliance, conduct studies, publish data, and report annually to Congress.

Key Provisions

• Limits qualified immunity defenses for covered local and federal law enforcement civil-rights claims.
• Expands DOJ and state attorney general pattern-or-practice authority and funds independent deadly-force investigations.
• Creates a National Police Misconduct Registry and conditions Byrne grants on officer certification and decertification systems.
• Requires use-of-force, racial-profiling, and law-enforcement-practices data collection, publication, privacy rules, audits, and reports.
• Conditions federal grants on bans or policies for racial profiling, no-knock drug warrants, chokeholds, duty-to-intervene training, body cameras, and sexual misconduct under color of law.