Attorney General William Barr announced that the Justice Department will now allow state, local, territorial, and tribal officers to use body-worn cameras in specific circumstances such as serving arrest warrants and executing search warrants while serving on federal task forces nationwide.
“After spending a substantial amount of time examining this issue, assessing the results of the pilot program, and taking into account the interests and priorities of all the law enforcement agencies involved, I am pleased to announce that the department will permit the use of body-worn cameras on our federal task forces in specific circumstances,” Barr said Thursday. “The Department of Justice has no higher priority than ensuring the safety and security of the American people and this policy will continue to help us fulfill that mission.”
The Justice Department pointed out that the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives all partner with local law enforcement on hundreds of federal task forces in the United States., and that these joint efforts targeting crime, narcotics, fugitives, and more will, for the first time, allow the limited use of body cameras.
The new DOJ guidelines for using body cameras on federal task forces appear stringent, noting that the officers “may wear and activate their recording equipment for the purpose of recording their actions during task operations only during a planned attempt to serve an arrest warrant or other planned arrest or the execution of a search warrant.”
But the task force officers “are prohibited from recording undercover personnel, confidential informants or confidential sources, on-scene witness interviews prior to or after the operation, personnel using specialized or sensitive investigative techniques or equipment, or on-scene actions by any non-law enforcement persons who are assisting law enforcement personnel prior to or after the operation.” The officers also cannot use the body cameras while “using specialized or sensitive investigative techniques, operating in a sensitive area, or working in an undercover or covert status.” The officers also “generally” cannot use body cameras “to record any activities related to investigations involving public corruption, medical facilities, national security, or other sensitive investigations.”
A study from 2018 by DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics concluded that, in 2016, 47% of the 15,328 law enforcement agencies in the U.S. had acquired body cameras, compared to 69% with dashboard cameras and 38% with audio recorders. The main reasons — which BJS said clocked in at roughly 80% each — included improving officer safety, reducing civilian complaints, reducing liability, and improving the quality of evidence. Among police departments with 100 to 249 officers, 55.7% had acquired body cameras, with that number growing to 62.9% in departments with 250 to 499 officers, and to roughly 80% in departments with 500 officers or more. Those numbers have continued to climb since the study finished.
Barr had announced that DOJ was launching a pilot program to consider body camera use back in October 2019, and beginning in January through September, federal officers in a number of city police departments — Houston, Detroit, Wichita, Salt Lake City, and Park City — began wearing body cameras in the program. The Justice Department said Thursday that any state and local agencies that now want to wear body cameras while part of federal task forces should reach out to the special-agent-in-charge of the proper federal agency or the U.S. Marshal in their federal district.
During a September roundtable in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a reporter asked President Trump his thoughts on body cameras for police, but he deferred to the attorney general, saying, “Bodycam? Well, that’s very interesting. Let me ask Bill to answer that question.” Barr answered, “Generally, that’s a local issue for each police force and each community, the political leaders of the community, to decide upon. But I think most law enforcement people I know who were originally skeptical of body cameras are now coming around to feeling they’re a net benefit.” Trump was then asked again, and said, “It’s a very tough, you know, it’s a very, the whole thing with the body camera, you read it, and you read two sides of the story.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden said in a June USA Today op-ed that he wanted to spend more money on local police, including helping them buy body cameras.
A June poll by Yahoo! News and YouGov found that 87% of people favored and only 5% opposed outfitting all police officers with body cameras. A Reuters/Ipsos poll the same month found nearly identical numbers, with 71% of people strongly supporting and 21% somewhat supporting requiring officers to wear body cameras, while only 4% somewhat opposed and 1% strongly opposed.
