New CLEAN DC Act Wipes Out 2022 Police Reform Law, Reverting Policing Rules to Pre-2022 Status

The newly proposed “Common-Sense Law Enforcement and Accountability Now in DC Act,” or the CLEAN DC Act, is short, but its impact is massive. This bill doesn’t introduce new policies or tweak existing ones; instead, it performs a legislative demolition job. Specifically, Section 2 of the CLEAN DC Act completely repeals the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022.

Hitting the Rewind Button on Justice

What does a total repeal mean for everyday life? Think of it like a software update that gets uninstalled. Every single change, every new rule, and every reform introduced by the 2022 Act is wiped clean. The laws governing policing and justice in D.C. immediately snap back to exactly how they were before the 2022 Act was passed. If the 2022 Act put new rules in place for how police interact with the public—say, limiting the use of certain restraints or requiring specific reporting—those rules are gone, and the old, less-restrictive standards are back in effect.

Accountability Measures on the Chopping Block

For people who live and work in the area, this is where the rubber meets the road. The 2022 Act was a significant piece of legislation aimed at increasing accountability and transparency in law enforcement. While we don't have the full text of the 2022 Act here, its repeal means that any new oversight mechanisms, any restrictions on police tactics, or any enhanced protections for individuals interacting with the police are now off the table. For example, if the 2022 Act mandated that body camera footage be released within a specific, short timeframe, that mandate vanishes, and the previous, potentially slower, process returns.

Who Feels This Change?

This immediate reversion affects virtually everyone, but especially those communities that saw the most benefit from the 2022 reforms. If you’re an advocate for criminal justice reform, this bill essentially erases years of legislative work aimed at improving police-community relations and establishing clearer guidelines for officer conduct. The groups that benefit are those who opposed the 2022 Act—likely law enforcement agencies and officials who found the accountability measures burdensome or restrictive. The core function of the CLEAN DC Act is simply to remove existing legislative protections and reforms, pushing the policy landscape back to its previous state without any new policy proposals to replace them.