S1563-119

What This Bill Does

Creates a DOJ grant program for state, local, Tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies to hire retired law enforcement personnel to train civilian employees and perform civilian tasks such as homicide, carjacking, financial-crime, reporting-compliance, camera-footage, crime-scene, forensic, computer-network, IT, and internet work, while barring arrest or force authority and adding disciplinary-record and audit safeguards.

Who Benefits and How

State, local, Tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies benefit from DOJ grants that can pay retired law enforcement personnel to train civilian employees and perform specialized civilian tasks. Retired law enforcement personnel benefit from funded roles supporting investigations, footage review, forensic analysis, financial-crime work, and technology expertise. Civilian police employees benefit from training that lets sworn officers shift non-arrest tasks to trained civilians. Communities with homicide, carjacking, cyber, and financial-crime workloads benefit if agencies can expand investigative capacity without giving civilians arrest or force authority.

Who Bears the Burden and How

DOJ grant staff must compare awards for duplication, report duplicate grants, certify annual audit completion and mandatory exclusions, and prioritize entities without recent unresolved audit findings. DOJ Inspector General auditors must audit grantees every fiscal year to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse. Grant recipients must certify retired personnel have current training or continuing education, search the National Decertification Index or request prior personnel records, and have the highest-ranking officer review misconduct findings before hiring. Recipients with unresolved audit findings lose grant eligibility for two fiscal years.

Key Provisions

• Defines civilian law enforcement tasks to include homicide, carjacking, financial-crime, reporting-compliance, camera-footage, crime-scene, forensic, computer-network, IT, and internet support.
• Bars civilian law enforcement tasks from including arrest authority or force under color of law.
• Authorizes DOJ grants for eligible state, local, Tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies to hire retired personnel.
• Requires retired personnel funded by grants to have current training or participate in continuing education.
• Requires grantees to check the National Decertification Index or prior personnel records and review misconduct findings before hiring.
• Requires DOJ Inspector General audits, two-year exclusions for unresolved audit findings, clean-audit grant priority, annual Attorney General certifications, and duplicate-grant reports.