DOJ Mandated to Produce 10-Year Gang Activity Report, Tracking Enforcement and Resources

This new legislation, the Gang Activity Reporting Act of 2025, is straightforward: it requires the Attorney General to start producing highly detailed, regular reports on gang activity across the country. Think of it as a deep-dive data dump for Congress, designed to give policymakers a clear, evidence-based picture of what’s happening with organized crime.

The bill mandates that the Attorney General, working closely with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI, must submit this comprehensive report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. The first one is due 150 days after the bill is enacted, and then it becomes an annual requirement. The goal, according to the Congressional findings (Section 2), is to get current, precise data because, frankly, the numbers on violent crime and gang involvement haven't been consistent or recent enough to create effective policy.

The Data Deep Dive: What They Have to Track

This isn't just a quick summary. The report must cover a massive 10-fiscal-year period and include specific metrics (Section 3). They have to track changes in gang membership, where they operate, and what kinds of criminal enterprises they’re into—from local crews to transnational organizations. Crucially, the report must analyze the tools and networks gangs use to commit crimes, and how much they cooperate with each other.

For law enforcement agencies (DOJ, DHS, FBI), this means a significant administrative lift. They have to detail all their resource allocations—how much money and manpower is being spent specifically on gang investigation and prosecution. They also have to break down enforcement statistics, comparing the last fiscal year's arrests to the previous five years. This includes the number of juveniles arrested for gang-related activity and how many firearms were seized during these operations. If you’re a federal analyst, this bill just added a lot of late nights to your calendar.

The Policy Connection and the Catch

For the average person, this bill doesn't directly change your day-to-day life, but it changes the quality of the information Congress uses to write laws that do affect you. If Congress gets accurate data showing, say, a huge spike in gang activity involving cross-border smuggling, they might fund new enforcement initiatives or change sentencing guidelines. It provides the necessary facts to move beyond anecdotes when discussing crime policy.

However, there is one detail that deserves attention: the bill allows the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the FBI Director to classify all or part of the report (Section 3). While some operational details probably need to be kept secret for security reasons, this clause gives the executive branch significant power to withhold information from the public and even from full congressional oversight. The intent is transparency for policy, but the classification authority means the agencies themselves get to decide how much of that transparency the public actually sees.