Biden launches a database to prevent police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s murder

The national database is part of wider efforts to combat law enforcement misconduct in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and examinations of police misconduct.

President Joe Biden recently announced the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database, or NLEAD. This is like a big record-keeping system to keep track of serious wrongdoing by federal police officers.

Reports say, “The idea is to prevent these officers from being hired if they have a history of misconduct.”

The reason behind creating this database goes back to the tragic event where George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis. It caused a lot of anger and led to discussions about how policing is done in America, especially when it comes to Black communities and people of color.

So, what is NLEAD all about? The database will focus on eight areas of behavior that are considered serious misconduct by federal law enforcement officers. This includes things like using too much force, making false reports, being biased or discriminatory, and even engaging in sexual misconduct. The goal is to keep track of these actions over the past seven years.

President Biden thinks this database is crucial because it can help avoid hiring officers who have a history of doing the wrong things. He believes it’s a way to hold law enforcement accountable for their actions and prevent bad decisions when it comes to hiring new officers.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, who is in charge of the legal stuff in the country, also supports this initiative. He mentioned that having such a database will be a useful tool for checking the background of officers before they are hired. This, according to him, will strengthen efforts to build trust between law enforcement and the public.

It’s important to note that the database won’t be available for the public to search. Instead, only authorized people within federal law enforcement agencies will be able to access it. Currently, it includes information about Justice Department officers, but they plan to include other federal law enforcement agencies in the future.

To keep things transparent, the Justice Department will publish a report every year with overall data from the database. The report will not reveal the identities of specific officers; instead, it will share general information to show what’s happening without pointing fingers at individual people.

The Justice Department is also working with a group that trains police officers to expand a national list of actions taken against state and local officers. This list shows when officers have lost their certification or had it revoked. The idea is to encourage accountability not only at the federal level but also among state and local law enforcement.

In simpler terms, the NLEAD is like a big file system to keep track of federal police officers’ bad behavior. President Biden and his team believe this will help make sure that officers with a history of doing wrong things don’t get hired again.

They see it as a step towards making sure that law enforcement is accountable for their actions and that the public can trust the people who are supposed to keep them safe.