# Plain Language Summary: Data on Interactions and Accountability for Law Enforcement with Individuals with Disabilities Act

This bill requires police departments and law enforcement agencies to collect and report detailed information about their interactions with people who have disabilities. The goal is to create a national database that tracks how often people with disabilities are stopped, arrested, or use force is used against them during police encounters. Right now, there's no consistent way to measure whether people with disabilities are treated differently by police, so this bill aims to fill that gap by requiring agencies to gather this data and make it publicly available.

The bill would affect police departments across the country, which would need to track whether someone involved in a police encounter has a disability and what type of disability it is. This information would then be reported to a federal agency, creating a comprehensive picture of how law enforcement interacts with this population. For people with disabilities, this could mean better oversight and accountability if patterns emerge showing they're being stopped or arrested at higher rates, or if force is being used against them more frequently than other groups.

The practical impact is that this bill creates transparency and accountability. If data shows that people with certain disabilities face disproportionate police contact or use of force, it could lead to policy changes, better training for officers on how to interact with people with disabilities, and potentially lawsuits or investigations into problematic departments. For law enforcement agencies, it means additional paperwork and reporting requirements, though the bill doesn't specify penalties or enforcement mechanisms for non-compliance, which could affect how seriously agencies take these new obligations.

Data on Interactions and Accountability for Law Enforcement with Individuals with Disabilities Act

Casey, Robert P., Jr.

Data on Interactions and Accountability for Law Enforcement with Individuals with Disabilities Act This bill expands activities to collect data about interactions between law enforcement officers and individuals with disabilities. In particular, the bill establishes a temporary advisory council within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop a methodology for collecting and reporting data on interactions between law enforcement officers and individuals with disabilities. HHS must award a grant to an independent research organization or institution of higher education to test the validity and reliability of the council's methodology. The council must also provide the Department of Justice with best practices to collect disability status in cases where a death or injury occurred because of an interaction with law enforcement. The bill also requires certain federal initiatives that collect information about interactions with law enforcement (e.g., the National Use-of-Force Data Collection) to include disability status. Further, the Bureau of Justice must award a grant to an independent third-party organization (e.g., an institution of higher education) for identifying trends using certain survey data in violence committed by law enforcement officers against individuals with disabilities.