Two House Republicans from southern border states are pushing appropriators to include millions of dollars in a 2020 funding bill to put body cameras on all U.S. Customs and Border Protection law enforcement personnel.
In a Monday letter to leading Democrats and Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee and Subcommittee on Homeland Security, Arizona Reps. Debbie Lesko and David Schweikert asked that an additional $21 million be included in the chamber’s fiscal 2020 funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security.
The money would go toward creating a “body-worn camera program or record” for law enforcement within CBP, which the agency has spent four years studying how to implement.
“These funds will allow CBP to acquire body-worn cameras and deploy the exact same technology already used by our nations [sic] local law enforcement. The body-worn camera equipment is desperately needed to improve officer safety and transparency,” wrote Schweikert and Lesko, the latter of whom is ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security.
The new urging comes less than two weeks after Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema asked her Senate colleagues to include the same block of funding for body cameras on federal law enforcement at the border.
In the Oct. 16 letter, Sinema described how law enforcement organizations across the country had employed the new technology, but the 60,000-person U.S. Customs and Border Protection within the Department of Homeland Security has not followed suit despite years of debate and internal research.
“Nationally, almost 300,000 state and local law enforcement officers have embraced the use of body-worn cameras, and more than 60 percent of all police departments nationwide have in-car cameras,” Sinema wrote in a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner. The Democrat-controlled House in June included $21 million for body cameras in the 2020 DHS appropriations bill.
CBP did not answer an email request on whether it wants to see the measure passed. However, earlier this month, the agency released a formal Request For Information for “Body-Worn Cameras in Support of Incident-Driven Video Recording Systems,” indicating it is looking for a contractor if the funding can pass the Senate. The cameras would be used on federal agents and officers within CBP’s three components: Border Patrol, Air and Marine Operations, and Office of Field Operations at ports of entry.
A source familiar with CBP’s position on body cameras said the agency is supportive of the funding and rolling the devices into operations. However, the agency has not publicly endorsed the move, nor has the White House.
The House Republicans addressed the letter to Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey, Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security Chairwoman Lucille Roybal-Allard, Appropriations ranking member Kay Granger, and Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security ranking member Chuck Fleischmann.
