New Act Requires Federal Reports on Officer Ambush Attacks and Mental Health Within 270 Days

This new piece of legislation, the Improving Law Enforcement Officer Safety and Wellness Through Data Act, is straightforward: it mandates the Attorney General to produce three comprehensive reports for Congress within 270 days of the bill becoming law. The core purpose is to collect better, standardized data on violence against police officers—from targeted ambush attacks to non-criminal aggressive incidents—and to formally assess the state of officer mental health and wellness resources across the country. Essentially, the government is admitting its current data collection on these critical issues is fragmented and needs a serious upgrade to inform future policy.

What Happens When Cops Get Targeted

The first major requirement (Sec. 3) focuses on targeted attacks, specifically ambushes, which Congress notes accounted for almost 30% of police killings in 2022. The Attorney General, working with the FBI and the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), must analyze the scope of these attacks—counting incidents where officers were targeted because they were officers, and those involving coordinated groups. For the average person, this means the federal government is finally dedicating resources to figure out why these attacks are happening and what works to stop them. The report must analyze the effectiveness of current training programs and review the Patrick Leahy Bulletproof Vest Partnership, checking if protective gear is getting where it needs to go, especially given the rising threat of ambushes. The goal here is to stop guessing and start using hard data to make sure every officer has the right gear and training.

Tracking the Daily Grind and Trauma

The second required report (Sec. 4) dives into the kind of aggression that doesn't necessarily result in a formal crime report but still takes a massive toll on officers. Think about the daily verbal assaults, threats, or high-stress, trauma-inducing events that currently fall through the cracks of the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) System. The Attorney General has to analyze whether the UCR and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) can be expanded to track these “aggressive actions” and what proof would be needed to report them. This is a big deal because it acknowledges that the stress and trauma of the job come not just from bullets, but from the constant, low-level aggression officers face. For local police departments, this could mean new administrative burdens as they figure out how to track and report this new category of data.

The State of Officer Wellness

Finally, the Act requires a deep dive into mental health (Sec. 5). This report must detail the kinds of mental health and stress reactions officers are experiencing after traumatic events, and, crucially, list all the mental health and wellness programs available at the federal, state, and local levels. They need to find out how many officers are actually using these resources and whether current mental health screenings are sufficient. This is the part that directly addresses the human cost of the job. If the data shows that 80% of officers aren't using available resources, it signals a major problem with access, stigma, or program effectiveness that the Justice Department will be required to address with new recommendations. This report could lead to better, more accessible mental health support for the people tasked with keeping our communities safe.