Latest news with #NationalLawEnforcementAccountabilityDatabase
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Trump Deletes Database Containing Over 5,000 Police Misconduct Incidents
In one of his first acts after returning to the White House, President Donald Trump ordered the Justice Department to delete a nationwide database tracking misconduct by federal law enforcement. Along with rescinding former President Joe Biden's executive orders on policing, Trump scrapped the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD), which logged more than 5,200 incidents of misconduct by federal officers and agents across various agencies. In a written statement to The Washington Post, the White House said Biden's executive order creating the NLEAD database "was full of woke, anti-police concepts that make communities less safe like a call for 'equitable' policing and addressing 'systemic racism in our criminal justice system.' President Trump rescinded the order creating this database on Day 1 because he is committed to giving our brave men and women of law enforcement the tools they need to stop crime." It is unclear what tool Trump is giving to law enforcement by deleting a nonpublic misconduct database—besides protection from future background checks. Centralized databases of police misconduct are important because, traditionally, poor information sharing between departments and lax background checks have allowed problem officers to hop from one department to another, leaving a string of misconduct, rights violations, and expensive lawsuits. Once upon a time, even Trump thought the database was a good idea. In 2020, the Trump White House issued an executive order directing the attorney general to "create a database to coordinate the sharing of information between and among Federal, State, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies concerning instances of excessive use of force related to law enforcement matters, accounting for applicable privacy and due process rights." Biden's NLEAD was actually less ambitious than Trump's plan: It included only federal law enforcement, and access was limited to federal agencies. Still, federal law enforcement unions objected, complaining that the database included minor administrative infractions and didn't give officers due process channels to dispute their inclusion. The Appeal, a nonprofit publication covering criminal justice issues, obtained a copy of the now-deleted database through a Freedom of Information Act request and reported that the vast majority of federal law enforcement agents in the database were Bureau of Prisons (BOP) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP) employees. "BOP and CBP employees comprised more than 70 percent of the more than 5,200 misconduct instances recorded in NLEAD between 2017 and 2024," The Appeal reported. "BOP officers accounted for more than 2,600 incidents—over half of all entries." By deleting NLEAD, Trump isn't protecting beat cops from woke witch hunts—he's covering for two of the most sprawling, unaccountable, and expensive law enforcement agencies in the federal government. The post Trump Deletes Database Containing Over 5,000 Police Misconduct Incidents appeared first on
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
5 years after George Floyd's murder, policing is worse
Five years ago, the world watched a video of a man, whose neck was pressed under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, begging for his life. 'I can't breathe,' George Floyd said. Over and over. Twenty-seven times. Until he was choked to death. George Floyd was a father. A friend. A human. And his life mattered. His murder was a tragedy. But it also revealed a truth. A truth that, for too long, too many in this nation have chosen to ignore: Police brutality against Black people is real, and it is systemic. But the system that murdered George Floyd wasn't broken. American policing continues to embrace racial profiling, gives officers latitude to be aggressive and generally shields them from liability. The system was built this way — and President Donald Trump is standing in the way of justice and accountability. Trump's Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it is abandoning efforts to hold the police department in Minneapolis accountable for routinely violating Black people's civil rights. It's also abandoning a similar effort in Louisville, Kentucky, where police shot and killed Breonna Taylor. The Justice Department also announced that it would terminate investigations and retract findings of wrongdoing in police departments nationwide, in Tennessee, Arizona, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma and Louisiana. Five years later, it's clear. Those in positions of power continue to stand in the way of any necessary reforms. It is a painful reality we must confront: What was promised after Floyd's murder hasn't been delivered. When the horrifying video of Floyd's murder went viral, the entire country stopped to notice. People protesting flooded the streets in all 50 states. Industry leaders in corporate boardrooms issued bold statements. Elected officials promised reforms. And for the first time in a long time, it seemed like change was not only possible but inevitable. Some states and cities implemented important reforms, such as bans on chokeholds and no-knock warrants, greater transparency in use-of-force policies and new standards for body camera video. But the federal government has failed to deliver the systemic change this moment demands. According to The Washington Post, there were 1,175 police killings in the United States in 2024, the deadliest year on record. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act would help prevent abuses in policing — including those seen in the brutal murder of Tyre Nichols — but it remains stalled in Congress. This is an insult. A disgrace. And a betrayal of the promises made to Black people, Americans as a whole and the more than 10,000 people police killed in the last decade. Even worse, the very data needed to hold law enforcement accountable has been buried. The Trump administration shut down the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database, which compiled police misconduct data and was created to bring transparency to abusive policing. That data was meant to shine a light on patterns of violence and ensure that bad-acting officers couldn't simply resign in one jurisdiction and be rehired in another. Without it, police officers can go back to shirking responsibility for their actions. That's not reform — that's regression. Accountability cannot be optional. And that accountability starts with ending qualified immunity. Right now, when officers abuse their power, taxpayers — not the officers or their unions — foot the bill for civil judgments. Our communities pay twice: first in trauma, then in money. That must end. Public servants shouldn't be shielded from public consequences when they violate public trust. Crossing the five-year mark on May 25 without any action is a disgrace and is likely to leave a lasting stain on our country. Passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act before May 25 would have been the only meaningful way to observe this anniversary. Instead, May 25 is just be another day of failed American leadership and domestic policy. But police reform is only the first step. Protecting Black lives also means protecting Black futures — investing in the mental health of our youth, ensuring equitable access to quality education and closing the racial wealth gap that leaves entire communities behind. It means creating civic infrastructure that strengthens Black political power and prevents our voices from being diluted at the ballot box. We need systemic protections, not symbolic gestures. We need policies that prevent injustice before it happens — not news conferences after the fact. The NAACP will not rest until those protections are in place. We will continue to advocate for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. We will continue to demand a national registry of police misconduct and the end of qualified immunity. We will continue to press for federal oversight and enforcement that holds police accountable — not just in headlines, but in courtrooms and communities. Because George Floyd should be alive. Tyre Nichols should be alive. Breonna Taylor. Elijah McClain. The list goes on. Their deaths aren't isolated incidents — they are symptoms of a deeper sickness. Five years later, we don't just remember George Floyd. We recommit ourselves to a simple but urgent truth: Black lives matter. In policy. In budgets. In schools and hospitals and on the streets where our children play. We don't need more promises. We need protection. We need power. And we need justice. Now. This article was originally published on
Washington Post
11-03-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
How Trump is reshaping reality by hiding data
Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. for the best experience. Curating reality is an old political game, but Trump's sweeping statistical purges are part of a broader attempt to reinvent 'truth.' The Trump administration is deleting taxpayer-funded data — information that Americans use to make sense of the world. In its absence, the president can paint the world as he pleases. We don't know the full universe of statistics that has gone missing, but the U.S. DOGE Service's wrecking ball has already left behind a wasteland of 404 pages. All sorts of useful information has disappeared, including data on: tktk Climate, Before Jan. 30 Today EPA | Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool sexual orientation and gender, Census | Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Data natural hazards, FEMA | National Risk Index for Natural Hazards crime DOJ | National Law Enforcement Accountability Database and health. ATSDR | Social Vulnerability Index (Data was restored by court order on Feb. 12) Before Jan. 30 Climate, EPA | Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool Today sexual orientation and gender, Census | Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Data natural hazards, FEMA | National Risk Index for Natural Hazards crime DOJ | National Law Enforcement Accountability Database and health. ATSDR | Social Vulnerability Index (Data was restored by court order on Feb. 12) Today Climate, EPA | Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool Before Jan. 30 sexual orientation and gender, Census | Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity data natural hazards, FEMA | National Risk Index for Natural Hazards crime DOJ | National Law Enforcement Accountability Database and health. ATSDR | Social Vulnerability Index (Data was restored by court order on Feb. 12) Some of this censorship has been challenged (and at least temporarily reversed) through litigation. Even so, DOGE, which stands for Department of Government Efficiency, has continued its digital book-burning and is now blocking new data collection. For example, in recent weeks, DOGE has canceled contracts for scheduled data gathering at the Social Security Administration and Education Department, among other agencies. Contrary to claims that these contract cancellations save money, in many cases the data have already been collected — but will never see the light of day, even if a new administration changes course. That's because many contracts contain data deletion clauses. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement Look ma, no data! Curating reality is an age-old political game. Politicians spin facts, cherry-pick and create 'truth' through repetition. Statistical sleight of hand has long been part of that tool kit, as has burying inconvenient numbers. (In 1994, for instance, U.S. lawmakers blocked federal data collection on 'green' gross domestic product.) But Trump's statistical purges have been faster and more sweeping — picking off not just select factoids but entire troves of public information. 'Statistics provide a mirror to society,' said Andreas Georgiou, a Greek statistician who was criminally prosecuted in his home country after crunching accurate budget statistics during Greece's debt crisis. 'Sometimes these are uncomfortable peeks into reality.' For Trump, the current reality can definitely be uncomfortable. After all, government data include lots of evidence that could frustrate his ambitions. So, he developed a smoke-and-mirrors act: tktkt Inconvenient truths threaten Trump's plans. For example, evidence of climate change has proved troublesome for Trump and his allies. So, he disappears the relevant data ... In February, government websites were ordered to remove statistics related to climate change. ... and uses other tactics to obscure reality. Trump's energy secretary claimed 'there's pluses to global warming' on Feb. 19. This makes it easier for him to do what he wants. Now, no downsides to Trump's 'drill, baby, drill' agenda. Inconvenient truths threaten Trump's plans. For example, evidence of climate change has proved troublesome for Trump and his allies. So, he disappears the relevant data ... In February, government websites were ordered to remove statistics related to climate change. ... and uses other tactics to obscure reality. Trump's energy secretary claimed 'there's pluses to global warming' on Feb. 19. This makes it easier for him to do what he wants. Now, no downsides to Trump's 'drill, baby, drill' agenda. Inconvenient truths threaten Trump's plans. For example, evidence of climate change has proved troublesome for Trump and his allies. So, he disappears the relevant data ... In February, government websites were ordered to remove statistics related to climate change. ... and uses other tactics to obscure reality. Trump's energy secretary claimed 'there's pluses to global warming' on Feb. 19. This makes it easier for him to do what he wants. Now, no downsides to Trump's 'drill, baby, drill' agenda. He has repeated this trick again and again with other frustrating realities. Government data show new forms of bird flu transmission, which undercut his 'Make America Healthy Again' agenda and promise to reduce egg prices. Federal statistics reflect heightened incidents of violence against trans people, whose very existence Trump has denied via an executive order. Databases show that sometimes law enforcement officers abuse their power, misconduct Trump would prefer to cover up. Plus, findings on which educational programs most effectively help special-needs children undercut Trump's plans to cut education funding. Each of these examples has now been blocked or removed from government websites. It's the successful execution of an impulse Trump articulated back in June 2020, when the covid-19 pandemic was raging: 'If we stop testing right now,' he said, 'we'd have very few cases, if any.' Obstructing access to such facts makes it more challenging for experts and regular voters alike to assess how politicians are serving the public. Three cases of legerdemath and other tricks up Trump's sleeve Deleting data isn't the only way to manipulate official statistics. Trump and his allies have also misrepresented or altered data. Here are a few examples: 1. Incorrect data This is a screen capture of the Department of Government Efficiency savings website. Witness DOGE's bogus statistics on its supposed government savings. The administration counts as 'savings' some canceled contracts that had already been paid in full. Some canceled expenses were created out of whole cloth, such as $50 million supposedly spent on sending condoms to Gaza. 2. Misrepresented data This is a photo of Donald Trump standing in front of a large chart titled "Illegal Immigration into the U.S." (Julia Nikhinson/AP) (Julia Nikhinson/AP) (Julia Nikhinson/AP) One of Trump's favorite charts on immigration is riddled with errors. For one, it does not show the number of immigrants entering the United States illegally, as he claims, but the number of people stopped at the U.S. border. Similarly, when Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was recently asked about how much DOGE funding cuts might reduce economic growth, he suggested that the agency might decide to change how economic growth is calculated so that the usual GDP report strips out government spending altogether. This would be an abrupt change to the standard GDP methodology that has been used around the world for nearly a century, but it would certainly make the DOGE cuts look less painful. 3. Altered data In this photo, Trump holds up a forecast map of hurricane Dorian. He has drawn on it with a sharpie, extended the projected path of the hurricane into Alabama. (Evan Vucci/AP) (Evan Vucci/AP) (Evan Vucci/AP) When data doesn't tell the story Trump wants, he fabricates it. In what became known as 'Sharpiegate,' Trump notoriously altered a map of Hurricane Dorian's path in 2019. A screen capture showing NIH funding data before and after Jan. 30. On the Jan. 31 screen capture, there is no category called "Workforce Diversity and Outreach". NIH Report funding data, Jan. 30 The Workforce Diversity and Outreach budget item disappeared from the data on Jan. 31. NIH Report funding data, Jan. 31 NIH Report funding data, Jan. 30 The Workforce Diversity and Outreach budget item disappeared from the data on Jan. 31. NIH Report funding data, Jan. 31 NIH Report funding data, Jan. 30 The Workforce Diversity and Outreach budget item disappeared from the data on Jan. 31. NIH Report funding data, Jan. 31 Likewise, before Jan. 30, a National Institutes of Health website documenting years of spending data included a category called 'Workforce Diversity and Outreach.' That line item is now gone — even though the money was, indeed, spent. Taking cues from authoritarian illusionists Such actions are straight out of authoritarian leaders' playbooks. Research suggests that less democratic countries have been more likely to inflate their GDP growth rates and manipulate their covid-19 numbers. Statistical manipulation is also more common in countries that shun economic openness and democracy. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin infamously executed statisticians who served up unwelcome numbers. His census chief Olimpiy Kvitkin was arrested and murdered by firing squad after the 1937 census revealed the bloc's population to be millions smaller than Stalin had claimed. Those disseminating the inconvenient data were 'enemies of the people,' state media declared at the time. Recent data-suppression episodes have been less bloody but still disturbing. In 2013, the International Monetary Fund censured Argentina for not providing accurate inflation and GDP data. And as the Financial Times has documented, China began rapidly eliminating inconvenient data series after Xi Jinping became president in 2013. For instance, shortly after China's youth unemployment rate hit an all-time high, the government statistics agency simply stopped publishing it. To be clear, efforts to rewrite reality via statistical manipulation often don't work. If anything, China's data deletions reduced public confidence in the country's economic stability. (No one hides good news, after all.) The Trump team's efforts to suppress nettlesome numbers have similarly eroded trust in U.S. data. Only about one-third of Americans trust that most or all of the statistics Trump cites are 'reliable and accurate.' Meanwhile, missing or untrustworthy data lead to worse decisions: Auto companies, for example, draw on dozens of federally administered datasets when devising new car models, how to price them, where to stock and market them and other key choices. Retailers need detailed information about local demographics, weather and modes of transit when deciding where to locate stores. Doctors require up-to-date statistics about disease spread when diagnosing or treating patients. Families look at school test scores and local crime rates when deciding where to move. Politicians use census data when determining funding levels for important government programs. And of course, voters need good data of all kinds when weighing whether to throw the bums out. Many of us take the existence of economic or public health stats for granted, without even thinking about who maintains them or what happens if they go away. Fortunately, some outside institutions have been saving and archiving endangered federal data. The Wayback Machine, for instance, crawls sites around the internet and has become an invaluable resource for seeing what federal websites used to contain. Other organizations are archiving topic-specific data and research, such as on the environment or reproductive health. These are critical but ultimately insufficient efforts. At best, they can preserve data already published. But they cannot update series already halted or purged, so that Americans can keep tabs on how economic, health, demographic or educational metrics are faring under a new administration. Some private companies may step in to offer their own substitutes (on prices, for example), but private companies still rely on government statistics to calibrate their own numbers. Much of the most critical information about the state of our union can be collected only by the state itself. Americans might be stuck with whatever Trump chooses to share with us, or not. Illustrations by Michelle Kondrich.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
You Won't Believe the Disturbing Tactics Conservatives are Using to Erase the Progress Made After George Floyd's Death
When George Floyd was killed at the hands of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin back in May 2020, it became the catalyst for America to pay attention to the plight of Black people in this country. Not only were Black Lives Matter protests taking place on both national and international levels, the federal government and corporate America were finally showing solidarity by implementing intentional diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Chauvin was later convicted for murdering Floyd in 2022 and is serving out concurrent federal and state sentences in a federal prison in Arizona. Considering that Black folks rarely get justice when they lose their lives at the hands of cops, his guilty verdict and sentencing was seen as a rare victory for our community. But if Trump and his supporters continue to have their way, all of this progress will be erased. In 2023, the Supreme Court struck down race-conscious college admissions which galvanized conservative groups to go after corporate 'wokeism.' Since being re-elected, Trump — along with his fellow Republicans— have worked tirelessly to undermine everything accomplished after Floyd's death through a slew of disturbing actions. Trump wasted no time signing off on executive orders that direct the Attorney General to identify and possibly investigate private sector companies with 'egregious and discriminatory' DEI programs. The orders also discontinue nearly all DEI-related activities in the federal workforce, in addition to rescinding a number of DEI-related executive orders issued by prior administrations — undoing what was put in place after Floyd's death. This has prompted notable companies, including Target, Walmart, Meta, and McDonald's to get rid of their programs that center diversity. It has also led to many executives altering their language around DEI efforts. For example, SHRM (also known as the Society for Human Resource Management) got rid of the word 'equity' from its 'Inclusion, Equity, and Diversity' approach, referring to its 'commitment to leading with Inclusion as the catalyst for holistic change in workplaces and society.' In January, Trump signed an executive order that removed a federal system for doing background checks on police. The National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD) was founded in 2023 and contained the professional records of federal law enforcement officers. Its primary goal was to allow prospective employers — including federal agencies and local police — to check their backgrounds for misconduct. But once Trump was re-elected, he made sure the system was taken offline. After Floyd's death, there was a national outcry for police reform. Former President Joe Biden issued a 'police accountability' executive order in 2022 with the database being just one item among many in the order. Despite Trump removing it, the National Decertification Index (NDI) still allows departments to check officers' records in other states, NPR reports. Chauvin's conviction in the murder of Floyd felt like justice for Black folks, but that now may be in jeopardy. Conservative media pundit Ben Shapiro recently launched a petition requesting Trump to pardon Chauvin. 'We write to urge you to immediately issue a pardon for Officer Derek Chauvin, who was unjustly convicted and is currently serving a 22-and-a-half year sentence for the murder of George Floyd and associated federal charges,' Shapiro wrote in a letter to the president. Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who serves as a senior adviser to Trump — posted about Shapiro's petition on X and stated it was 'something to think about.' For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration shuts down national database documenting police misconduct
Donald Trump's second presidential administration shut down a national database that tracked misconduct by federal police, a resource that policing reform advocates hailed as essential to prevent officers with misconduct records from being able to move undetected between agencies. The National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD), which stored police records documenting misconduct, is now unavailable, the Washington Post first reported. The US justice department also confirmed the database's elimination in a statement issued online. 'User agencies can no longer query or add data to the NLEAD,' the statement read. 'The US Department of Justice is decommissioning the NLEAD in accordance with federal standards.' Related: Ex-officer is convicted in 2022 roadside shooting death of Colorado man A weblink that hosted the database is no longer active. The police misconduct database, the first of its kind, was not publicly available. Law enforcement agencies could use the NLEAD to check if an officer applying for a law enforcement position had committed misconduct, such as excessive force. Several experts celebrated the NLEAD when Joe Biden first created it by an executive order issued in 2023, the third year of his presidency. 'Law enforcement agencies will no longer be able to turn a blind eye to the records of misconduct in officer hiring and offending officers will not be able to distance themselves from their misdeeds,' the Legal Defense Fund president and director-counsel, Janai Nelson, said of the database at the time. But Trump has since rescinded Biden's executive order as part of an ongoing effort to slash federal agencies down. Trump himself initially proposed the database after the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, months before Biden defeated him in the presidential election that November. In an emailed statement to the Washington Post, the White House confirmed the database's deletion. 'President Trump believes in an appropriate balance of accountability without compromising law enforcement's ability to do its job of fighting crime and keeping communities safe,' read the statement. 'But the Biden executive order creating this database was full of woke, anti-police concepts that make communities less safe like a call for 'equitable' policing and addressing 'systemic racism in our criminal justice system.' President Trump rescinded the order creating this database on Day 1 because he is committed to giving our brave men and women of law enforcement the tools they need to stop crime.' News of the NLEAD's erasure comes as police misconduct is far from rooted out in American law enforcement. For instance, in Hanceville, Alabama, an entire department was recently put on leave amid a grand jury investigation that found a 'rampant culture of corruption'. The 18-person grand jury called for the Hanceville police department, which only has eight officers, to be abolished. A probe into that police department came amid the death of 49-year-old Christopher Michael Willingham, a Hanceville dispatcher. Willingham was discovered dead at work from a toxic combination of drugs. The department also 'failed to account for, preserve and maintain evidence and in doing so has failed crime victims and the public at large', the grand jury ruled.
