RELEASE: During National Police Week, Gottheimer Announces Bipartisan “Stop the Doxx Act” to Protect Law Enforcement Officers and their Families

Announces Bipartisan PAL Act

Highlights Critical Importance of Investing in Law Enforcement

Above: Gottheimer announces new bipartisan federal legislation to protect law enforcement.

MIDLAND PARK, NJ — Today, to mark National Police Week, U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) introduced two new bipartisan federal bills: one to protect law enforcement officers and their families from doxxing — the publishing of personal information online to threaten, intimidate, or facilitate violence — and the Police Athletic/Activities League (PAL) Reauthorization Act. Gottheimer is the Co-Chair of the bipartisan Law Enforcement Caucus. 

The bipartisan “Stop the Doxx Act,” which Gottheimer is leading with Congressman Don Bacon (R-NE) and Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY)  It will:

• Make it a federal crime — with strengthened penalties — to knowingly publish the personal information of a federal, state, or local law enforcement officer, prosecutor, judge, or immediate family member with the intent to threaten, intimidate, or facilitate violence.
• The legislation sets penalties of prison time, not just fines, which increases if the conduct results in bodily injury or death.
• The bill also creates a national training program to help officers and public servants better protect their personal information online and understand their rights when their data is leaked.

Gottheimer also introduced the PAL Act, which funds grants to establish Police Athletic League chapters that partner local officers with kids through sports, mentorship, and youth development programming to build trust and prevent crime in their communities.

“You can’t protect our communities if you can’t protect the people who sacrifice so much for us,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5). “Doxxing isn’t harmless online behavior. It is targeted intimidation against the people who keep our families safe, and the law has simply not kept up with the threat. We must always get the backs of those who risk their lives every day to protect us, and that means making sure they and their families are safe both on the job and at home.”

Watch Gottheimer’s remarks here.

“Those who protect our communities and uphold the rule of law deserve protection from threats, intimidation, and violence,” said Congressman Don Bacon (NE-2). “The Stop the Doxx Act makes clear that weaponizing personal information against law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, or their families is unacceptable and must carry real consequences. With threats and intimidation against these public servants continuing to rise, this legislation is needed now. I look forward to working with Rep. Gottheimer to get this bipartisan legislation signed into law.”

“As a lifelong member of law enforcement and former sheriff, I saw firsthand the amazing work the Police Athletic League of Jacksonville (JaxPAL) did in our community,” said Congressman John Rutherford (FL-5). “For more than 80 years, this organization has helped build relationships between young Americans and law enforcement that has led to safer, more connected communities. That’s why I am proud to join Rep. Gottheimer to introduce the National Police Athletic/Activities League Youth Enrichment Reauthorization Act.”

“The New Jersey State PBA applauds Congressman Gottheimer for proposing legislation to criminalize the doxxing of law enforcement officers.  Intentionally releasing a law enforcement officer’s address for the purpose of threatening or murdering them is a heinous violation of the peace,” said Peter Andreyev, State President of New Jersey’s Policemen’s Benevolent Associations. “This is National Police Week where we remember and celebrate the lives, service and bravery of the thousands of law enforcement officers who have been killed in the line of duty since our nation’s founding. Congressman Gottheimer’s proposal is a common sense approach to prevent more names from being added to the Memorial Wall in Washington.” 

“Protecting those who protect our communities is a fundamental responsibility of our legal system. Congressman Gottheimer’s leadership in making the doxxing of law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and judges a federal crime is a critical step toward ensuring that those on the front lines of justice can do their jobs without fear of targeted violence or intimidation against themselves and their families,” said Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella. “A national training program to help public servants understand their rights and protect their personal information online would be both practical and proactive. By establishing strict federal penalties and providing vital training resources, this initiative reinforces the shield that guards our public servants in an increasingly digital world.”

“The STFA leadership thanks Congressman Gottheimer for his constant guardianship of our members and all of the men and women who serve on the front lines protecting our communities.  The crime of doxxing presents a new intricate and technological threat to our law enforcement officers and their families and we applaud Congressman Gottheimer for addressing this threat head on,” said Wayne Blanchard, President of the State Troopers Fraternal Association.  “This bill will hold those accountable who commit these cowardly threats on troopers and officers by doxxing with stiff criminal penalties, while providing training for law enforcement officers to keep themselves safe from these threats along with strong jurisdictional oversight of this issue.”

Targeted doxxing campaigns have surged, with more than 11.7 million American adults having been doxxed overall, with officers’ home addresses, photos of their spouses and children, and direct threats spreading across social media. Only nineteen states currently have any anti-doxxing protections for public officials; thirty-one have none on the books at all. New Jersey is one of the protected states, having enacted Daniel’s Law in 2020, months after a gunman tragically shot and killed the son of a judge in her New Jersey home.

Gottheimer also announced bipartisan legislation, the National Police Athletic/Activities League (PAL) Reauthorization Act with Congressman John Rutherford (R-FL). PAL programs provide safe places for kids to go after school, offer mentorship and enrichment opportunities, and  build trust between young people and the officers who serve their neighborhoods. There are more than two hundred PAL chapters nationwide, including fifteen in New Jersey, such as Northvale, Bergenfield, and Vernon Township.

“Rep. Gottheimer has long championed support for communities, law enforcement, and delinquency and crime prevention, and his sponsoring of the National Police Athletic/Activities Leagues Youth Enrichment Reauthorization Act is a further demonstration of that commitment,” said National Association of Police Athletics/Activities Leagues (National PAL) President and CEO, Dr. Stephen Coan. “Support, such as that of Rep. Gottheimer, will allow National PAL to connect more kids with law enforcement through consistent, positive activities — including sports, mentoring, STEM, and leadership programs — creating deeper respect for law enforcement, trust between kids and cops, and greater opportunities for stronger communities and better outcomes for youth.”

In this year’s appropriations package, Gottheimer helped claw back record federal investments for law enforcement, including:

• Nearly doubling resources for Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne JAG) programs, from $499 million to $964 million;
• Nearly doubling resources for Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) programs, from $417 million to $800 million;
• $30 million for bulletproof vests;
• $30 million for hate crime prevention initiatives;
• $18 million for accreditation programs for small and rural departments;
• Clawed back over $17 million for police departments throughout New Jersey’s Fifth Congressional District through the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office;
• Full lifetime resources for the World Trade Center Health Program, ensuring continued care for 9/11 responders and survivors.

Gottheimer continues to lead the bipartisan Invest to Protect Act, supporting small and mid-sized police departments — which make up more than ninety-four percent of agencies nationwide — with resources for recruitment, retention, training, and mental health support. He is also co-leading the bipartisan Protect and Serve Act, which creates stronger federal penalties for individuals who deliberately target law enforcement officers, and the bipartisan Helping Educators and Law Enforcement Personnel Earn Retirement (HELPER) Act, which would establish a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)-style home loan program for first responders and eliminate the down payment requirement to get a mortgage. The HELPER Act is especially critical in New Jersey, which has the fifth-highest median home price in the nation.

Gottheimer was joined by Bergen County Sheriff Anthony Cureton, Midland Park Mayor Harry Shortway Jr., Midland Park Police Chief Michael Powderley, Midland Park Council President Lorraine DeLuca, Midland Park Councilman Mark Braunius, Midland Park Councilwoman Nancy Cronk Peet, Midland Park Councilman Keith DeBlasio, Chris Spittler, Midland Park PBA Delegate John Aheran, and Hackensack PBA Delegate Frank Cavallo.

Below: Gottheimer announces new bipartisan federal legislation to protect law enforcement.

Read Gottheimer’s full remarks below:

Good morning, everybody, and thank you to our brave law enforcement officers, first responders, and elected officials who are here today. I especially want to thank our PBA representatives and our Mayor, who is former law enforcement himself.

It’s especially fitting that we’re gathered here in beautiful Midland Park, a proud Bergen County community with a long tradition of public service. Named after the New Jersey Midland Railway, Midland Park may be smaller geographically, but it’s always punched way above its weight when it comes to community spirit and supporting those who serve. Small but mighty. I like that. Standing up for the average Joe. That’s exactly what law enforcement does. Always looking out for us. 

That’s why it’s so important that we always look out for them – and why I am honored to be here in Jersey this morning to kick off National Police Week.

As Co-Chair of the Law Enforcement Caucus, this week carries real weight for me. It is a chance to recognize the quiet courage of the men and women in our great state and across America who strap on a vest, kiss their loved ones goodbye, and head out into a shift with no guarantee of how it ends. They do it anyway — because protecting our communities and keeping our families safe is who they are.  They get our backs and we must always get theirs.

To me, your badge represents service, sacrifice, and unwavering commitment. It stands for courage in the face of danger, a genuine care and compassion for your community, and a true bond with the people you serve. True community policing, especially in a place like Midland Park, or Vernon, or Ringwood. 

But honoring our officers cannot just happen during Police Week. Supporting law enforcement must be something we do every single day — not only with words, but with real action. And the reality is, the threats facing law enforcement today are growing more dangerous, more sophisticated, and far more personal. Officers are dealing with increased violent crime, increased violent rhetoric, recruitment and retention challenges, and growing mental health pressures. And they’re dealing with it in a time when people trust authority less than ever, when police are often disrespected, yelled at, confronted, and often spat on. They are filmed, with videos clipped and put on YouTube and TikTok. They have to do their job in the face of all of that.

So, as a result, you’re not just facing danger on the job anymore. The danger follows law enforcement home. Through a practice called “doxxing,” officers and their families are being targeted and hunted online. 

People snap photos of the officers and post their faces and home addresses online for the world to see. They put up photos of their spouses and children on social media platforms, so they can’t go to church or the grocery store. These are threats aimed squarely at the people they love the most, and it’s not because these perpetrators like them. It’s because they want to see them harassed, marginalized, or something worse. In Denver, a cop was recently targeted online, with someone calling for a “pig roast.”

We are also seeing “swatting attacks” — where a criminal places a fake 911 call to lure officers into a deadly trap. And we are seeing coordinated intimidation campaigns built for one purpose: to scare our officers, silence them, and make them think twice about ever putting on the badge again. This is totally and completely unacceptable. You can’t protect our communities if you can’t protect the people who sacrifice so much for us.

Make no mistake, this is not harmless online behavior. This is targeted intimidation against the very people who keep our communities safe. And right now, our laws have not kept up with the threat. More than 11.7 million Americans have already been doxxed. The Department of Homeland Security has reported a more than 1,000 percent increase in assaults on federal law enforcement officers, with their families being doxxed and threatened online at the same time.

And yet — only nineteen states have any anti-doxxing protections for public officials on the books. Thirty-one states have nothing. Thankfully, Jersey is one of the nineteen. Daniel’s Law was signed in November 2020 — just months after twenty-year-old Daniel Anderl, the son of federal Judge Esther Salas, was tragically shot and killed at the front door of his family’s New Jersey home by a gunman who came looking for his mother.

While Jersey did the right thing by adding protections, although it only includes a fine and not jail time, there is no federal legislation to protect state and local law enforcement. Now it is time for Washington to act and put clear, tough legislation on the books to protect not only judges and prosecutors, but law enforcement, too. We need a clear federal standard — and we need real, serious consequences for the people who violate it. 

That is why today, to help kick off Police Week, I’m introducing new bipartisan legislation in Congress, the Stop the Doxx Act, with Congressman Don Bacon of Nebraska. It’s new federal legislation to protect our officers and the families who love them from these increased incidents of doxxing. Our bill does three things. First, it makes it a federal crime to knowingly publish the personal information of law enforcement officers at every level — federal, state, and local. 

Second, it extends those same protections to prosecutors, judges, and their immediate family members, because, as we saw here in New Jersey, with the brutal killing of Judge Salas’ son Daniel, these targeted attacks aren’t just against law enforcement officers. They follow up to prosecutors and judges. Third, when someone’s actions result in bodily injury or death, it ensures there are real, serious consequences for the people responsible, including up to 10 years in prison for a first-time offense, and up to 30 years for repeat offenders.

You go after a cop and their family, or a judge or prosecutor, you’re going to jail.

As I mentioned, targeted doxxing campaigns against law enforcement are skyrocketing. The growing accessibility of AI tools and automated data scraping technologies have significantly intensified the scale, precision, and anonymity with which these attacks are carried out. 

That’s why our bill will also establish a national training program to help officers and public servants better protect their personal information online and understand their rights when their data is leaked.

At the same time, we need to invest on the front end to help build stronger relationships between law enforcement and young people in our communities. Because, let’s face it, it’s usually not the 80-year-old grandmother who’s scraping the internet for this sensitive info on officers.

That is why I’m also proud to announce the bipartisan National Police Athletic/Activities League Youth Enrichment Reauthorization Act – or the PAL Act — with my fellow Law Enforcement Caucus Co-Chair Congressman, and former Sheriff, John Rutherford from Florida. PAL programs provide safe places for kids to go after school, offering them mentorship and enrichment opportunities, and building trust between young people and the officers who serve their neighborhoods.

There are more than two hundred PAL chapters nationwide, including fifteen right here in North Jersey, such as Northvale Bergenfield, and Vernon Township. These programs matter because they strengthen communities long before problems turn into crises. They teach our children that the men and women in uniform are there to protect them, to serve them, and to look out for them. And they help our young people understand the very real risks our officers face every single day they put on the badge.

As I’ve said for years, we must always get the backs of those who risk their lives every day to protect us.

This is part of a much broader fight I have been leading for years — a fight to invest in public safety and to stand with the men and women who serve. And let me say it again, because it cannot be said enough: you cannot cut your way to safer streets. You cannot defund your way to a better police department. The only way forward is to invest to protect.

Slashing budgets to the bone only weakens the profession. It pushes good people out and fuels a race to the bottom. We need to fund — not defund — law enforcement so departments have the resources, staffing, technology, training, and mental health support they need to keep officers and communities safe. That is exactly why I first introduced the bipartisan Invest to Protect Act with Congressman Rutherford. 

Invest to Protect passed the House, and I will continue to fight until it passes the Senate and is signed into law. More than ninety-four percent of police departments across the country have fewer than one-hundred officers. These smaller departments are expected to handle everything from violent crimes and drug trafficking, to mental health crises and cyber threats, often without the resources larger departments have. Our legislation helps smaller departments recruit and retain officers, invest in training, and provide mental health resources. 

Because investing in officers ultimately means investing in safer communities, but our smaller departments need the budget to do so.

I’m also continuing to push the bipartisan Protect and Serve Act, where I serve as the Democratic lead. The bill is simple: if you deliberately hurt a cop, you’re going to jail.  And if you kill a cop, you should get the death penalty. 

I was at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial earlier this month – I saw the names of those killed in the line of duty. We should have zero patience for those who kill cops.

And as the Democratic lead on the HELPER Act, I am fighting to make sure our first responders can actually afford to live in the very communities they protect. The bill creates a new home loan program for first responders and eliminates the down payment requirement to get a mortgage. 

That matters everywhere — but it matters especially here in Jersey, where housing costs are making it harder than ever for our departments to recruit and retain the officers we need.

This past year, I also led the charge to increase federal law enforcement funding, including nearly doubling funding for Byrne JAG grants for protective equipment and training and the COPS programs, to help our departments hire law enforcement. We’ve already received millions here in my district to help our departments.  

We also secured new funding for bulletproof vests, hate crime prevention initiatives, and accreditation programs for small and rural departments. I also recently secured resources to upgrade the Wyckoff and Bergenfield Police Departments, more than two million dollars for the West Milford Police Department to hire additional officers, and more than two million dollars for technology upgrades for the Bergen County Sheriff’s office. And importantly, we helped secure full lifetime funding for the World Trade Center Health Program, so our 9/11 responders and survivors continue receiving the care they earned and deserve. We will never forget the sacrifices those heroes made for this country.

And we are pushing even harder for the next fiscal year. Because I remain absolutely committed to fighting for our sworn officers and first responders — and to making sure our municipalities and police departments have the resources, equipment, technology, and training they need to do their jobs safely and effectively.At the end of the day, supporting law enforcement should never be partisan. Every bill we are talking about today is bipartisan because this is not a red or blue issue. 

It is about getting the backs of the people who get ours. It is about standing with the men and women who put their lives on the line every single day to protect our families and our communities.

Especially during Police Week, we must remember the true cost of that service and sacrifice. We should always honor the officers who gave everything in the line of duty and recommit ourselves to making sure those who continue to serve know that we stand firmly behind them. 

There is nothing partisan about this. This is just what’s good for Jersey and good for our country.

In the greatest country in the world, and with our brave law enforcement officers protecting our communities, I know that if we work together, our best days will always be ahead of us.

Thank you, and God bless our officers and their families.

###