in effect
Executive Order 14288, signed April 28, 2025, directs federal agencies to increase support for state and local law enforcement agencies. It instructs the Attorney General and other agency heads to provide legal protection, training, resources, and equipment to police forces across the country, and to hold state and local officials accountable if they are found to be obstructing law enforcement.
Within 60 days, the Attorney General must review all existing federal consent decrees and court agreements governing state and local police departments, and modify, rescind, or close any that the administration determines unduly limit law enforcement activity. Within 90 days, the Defense Department and Attorney General must expand the transfer of surplus military and national security equipment to local law enforcement and identify additional ways military assets and personnel can be used for crime prevention. The Attorney General is directed to create a legal defense and indemnification fund — including private pro bono legal help — for officers who face personal legal liability for actions taken on duty. The order also directs federal agencies to pursue prosecution of state and local officials who are found to be willfully blocking law enforcement duties or who restrict policing activity under diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Homeland Security Task Forces created under a January 2025 executive order are directed to assist in carrying out this order’s goals.
State and local law enforcement agencies are the primary recipients of new federal resources, training, legal protections, and equipment made available under this order. State and local government officials in jurisdictions with existing federal consent decrees — legal agreements that typically resulted from prior findings of civil rights violations — may see those agreements reviewed and potentially ended. Individual police officers facing civil or legal claims related to their official duties may be eligible for federally supported legal defense and indemnification through a new mechanism to be established by the Attorney General.