[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5143 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5143

To establish standards for law enforcement officers in the District of 
  Columbia to engage in vehicular pursuits of suspects, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 4, 2025

 Mr. Higgins of Louisiana (for himself and Mr. Donalds) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and 
                           Government Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To establish standards for law enforcement officers in the District of 
  Columbia to engage in vehicular pursuits of suspects, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``District of Columbia Policing 
Protection Act''.

SEC. 2. VEHICULAR PURSUITS BY LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS IN DISTRICT OF 
              COLUMBIA.

    (a) Amendment.--The Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform 
Amendment Act of 2022 (D.C. Law 24-345) is amended--
            (1) in subtitle S of title I--
                    (A) in the heading, by striking ``LIMITATIONS ON 
                THE'';
                    (B) in section 127(a) (sec. 5-365.01(a), D.C. 
                Official Code)--
                            (i) by striking paragraphs (1) through (5);
                            (ii) by redesignating paragraphs (6) and 
                        (7) as paragraphs (1) and (2), respectively;
                            (iii) by striking paragraphs (8) through 
                        (11); and
                            (iv) by redesignating paragraph (12) as 
                        paragraph (3); and
                    (C) in section 128 (sec. 5-365.02, D.C. Official 
                Code), by striking subsections (a), (b), and (c) and 
                inserting the following:
    ``If a law enforcement officer encounters a suspect fleeing in a 
motor vehicle, the officer shall engage in a vehicular pursuit of the 
suspect unless the officer, or a higher-ranking official with 
supervisory authority over the officer, reasonably believes that--
            ``(1) vehicular pursuit would--
                    ``(A) entail an unacceptable risk of harm to a 
                person other than the suspect; or
                    ``(B) be futile; or
            ``(2) the suspect can be apprehended more effectively or 
        expeditiously by a means other than vehicular pursuit.''; and
            (2) in the table of contents, by striking the item relating 
        to subtitle S of title I and inserting the following:

``SUBTITLE S. USE OF VEHICULAR PURSUITS BY LAW ENFORCEMENT        33''.
                            OFFICERS.
    (b) Department of Justice Report on PursuitAlert.--Not later than 3 
years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Attorney General 
shall--
            (1) evaluate the costs and benefits of the Metropolitan 
        Police Department of the District of Columbia adopting 
        PursuitAlert or another similar technology capable of alerting 
        members of the public to the presence of a police pursuit in 
        their immediate vicinity; and
            (2) publish a report on the evaluation conducted under 
        paragraph (1) and submit the report to--
                    (A) the Committee on Homeland Security and 
                Governmental Affairs of the Senate;
                    (B) the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate;
                    (C) the Committee on Oversight of the House of 
                Representatives; and
                    (D) the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 
                Representatives.
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