Kim Foxx and Cristine Soto DeBerry: Deleting the federal police misconduct database makes us less safe

President Donald Trump’s administration quietly deleted the first federal police misconduct database — a critical tool created to prevent federal law enforcement officers with histories of serious misconduct from being rehired by other agencies.

This reckless decision undermines accountability, weakens public trust and makes our communities less safe.

Ironically, it was Trump himself who proposed such a database in 2020. It’s bewildering and dangerous that he has now reversed his own position and politicized a smart, effective tool that promotes accountability.

The partnership between prosecutors and law enforcement is essential to upholding the law and protecting our communities. But for our system to work, the officers entrusted to keep us safe must be held to the highest standards of integrity.

This kind of transparency shouldn’t be partisan or controversial. Both law enforcement agencies and the communities we serve should want to prevent what is known as “wandering officers,” when officers who have committed serious misconduct are hired in a new jurisdiction without disclosing their employment history. After all, if a doctor or teacher committed egregious misconduct, wouldn’t you want to know about that before hiring them at the next hospital or school over? Why would law enforcement officers be any different?

This due diligence is essential to building and keeping trust with the communities we serve, which is vital for public safety. When people believe in the fairness and integrity of the criminal legal system, they are more likely to come forward and cooperate as witnesses and victims, helping us seek justice for all.

A federal database was a positive first step to make this work easier. While the database was only in effect for about a year, it had begun to make a difference. By the end of 2024, all 90 executive branch agencies with law enforcement officers had contributed to compiling nearly 4,800 reports of misconduct dating to 2017. At least 25 times, the system flagged a candidate, prompting federal hiring officials to look more closely at a candidate’s background.

If Trump hadn’t ordered the database to be deleted, the records would have grown over time, and local and state law enforcement agencies would have likely gained access, as the Department of Justice had been exploring how to get the database to more agencies.

Research from the University of Chicago has shown that former misconduct — even low-level offenses — can be a strong predictor of future misconduct. In fact, while some law enforcement unions opposed including what they considered minor infractions in the federal database, data has shown that a demonstrated pattern of past events, even relatively minor ones, can be an even stronger predictor of future egregious misconduct than a single serious prior event. So documenting misconduct and ensuring other agencies have access to an individual’s past patterns of behavior could prevent the next serious or even fatal event.

With a lack of federal leadership on police accountability, state and local governments must step up. We need to create and expand state databases to track officer misconduct, require comprehensive reporting on misconduct from police departments and enact legislation that promotes transparency in policing. While a database exists in Illinois to track officers who are terminated or leave while under investigation for policy violations and misconduct, there is still more work to do to prevent wandering officers.

Law enforcement officers take an oath to protect and serve our communities, and the public has a right to know those entrusted with this responsibility are held to the highest standards. By deleting the federal police misconduct database, Trump has made it harder to ensure accountability, transparency and public trust.

But we will not stand by in silence. Our communities demand and deserve justice, and we will keep fighting to ensure accountability because no one — not the president, not the police, not anyone in our justice system — is above the law.

Kim Foxx is a former state’s attorney for Cook County. Cristine Soto DeBerry is executive director of Prosecutors Alliance Action, which champions prosecutorial reform. They wrote this for the Chicago Tribune.