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119-s-3804119th Congress

Under Color of Law Accountability Act

Sponsored By: Senator Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ]

Introduced

Summary

This bill would create federal crimes for excessive force, theft, and obstruction by people acting under color of law. It defines those offenses, sets penalties tied to harm or value, and adds proof and timing rules for prosecution.

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  • Victims and communities would see new criminal tools for prosecuting excessive force, with standard offenses punishable up to 10 years and cases involving kidnapping, attempted murder, or death punishable up to 30 years.
  • People acting under color of law would face theft charges for taking money, property, or controlled substances obtained under color of law or from seized property, with penalties that scale around $500 and $1,000 value thresholds.
  • People who record law enforcement would be protected by obstruction rules that ban destroying or altering recordings or using force to stop lawful recording. Obstruction penalties reach up to 20 years and up to 30 years if death results, death-resulting offenses could be indicted at any time and other offenses would have a seven-year limit.

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

1 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.

New federal crimes for officer misconduct

This bill would create new federal crimes for people acting under color of law across Federal, State, Tribal, territorial, commonwealth, possession, and District authorities. It would ban knowingly using excessive force that causes bodily injury, theft or conversion of money or property (value tiers of $25, $500, and $1,000 apply), and obstruction of recordings or evidence. Penalties would generally go up to 10 years in prison, up to 20 years for obstruction, and up to 30 years when death results or in certain aggravated excessive-force cases. Most offenses would have a seven-year statute of limitations, but offenses that cause death could be charged at any time; the bill would also define key terms like “excessive force” and “under color of law,” and would allow prosecutors not to prove awareness of a specific Federal law.

Sponsors & CoSponsors

Sponsor

Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ]

NJ • D

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

No roll call votes available for this bill.

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