Transparency

The Trump Administration Shut Down a Police Misconduct Database. Now It's Facing a FOIA Lawsuit

The White House said the database tracking misconduct by federal law enforcement officers was "full of woke, anti-police concepts."

C.J. Ciaramella | 9.15.2026 3:33 PM

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Last year the Trump administration shut down a national database of misconduct by federal law enforcement officers. Now it's facing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for refusing to release records about that decision.

A coalition of civil rights and police accountability groups filed a FOIA lawsuit on September 4 after waiting 10 months for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release records about why it pulled the plug on the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD), a nonpublic database tracking misconduct by federal law enforcement officers.

The Justice Department launched NLEAD in 2023 to assist federal agencies with hiring and oversight. However, in one of his first acts after returning to the White House in 2025, President Donald Trump ordered the........

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