Bills
| 3.23.22

Are Federal Grants Needed to Help Police Departments Buy Body Cameras for Their Officers? (S. 877)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is S. 877?

(Updated July 18, 2019)

This bill would establish a grant program to provide state and local law enforcement agencies with funding to purchase body cameras that would be worn by on-duty police officers. The hope is that body cameras would improve evidence collection, deter excessive force, and improve both accountability and transparency into the use of force by police officers.

These programs would operate on the assumption that officers wearing body cameras should minimize recording of data that’s unrelated to law enforcement activities. Officers would also be held accountable for explaining when they don’t record activities and situations that should’ve been recorded. Officers would also have to get consent from witnesses and crime victims before recording. Members of the public would be able to file complaints related to the improper use of body cameras.

At the end of the day, these body camera programs would be operating to collect more data from state and local law enforcement agencies on:

  • Incidents when officers use force -- broken down by race, ethnicity, gender, and age of the person who was the target of force.

  • The number of complaints filed against law enforcement officers, and the nature of those complaints.

  • How camera footage is used for evidence collection when investigating crimes.

Argument in favor

Body cameras will help with evidence collection in addition to reducing the use of excessive force. It’s a positive for both the general public and police officers.

Argument opposed

Body cameras threaten the privacy of citizens and police officers -- especially because there are no standard regulations (at the local or federal level) for how the camera data is stored, used, or destroyed.

Impact

The general public, law enforcement officers; law enforcement agencies at the state and local level; Office of Justice Programs; body camera manufacturers, the Assistant Attorney General, the DOJ.

Cost of S. 877

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Grants awarded through this program would last for two years, with 50 percent of the grant being disbursed when it was awarded. The remaining 50 percent would be disbursed after the law enforcement agency has established policies and procedures for using body-worn cameras, storing and destroying the data it gathers, the release of stored data, and made these policies and procedures public.

Funding for this program would be capped at $10 million for the 2015 and 2016 fiscal years, and the federal share of any body camera program that is funded with these grants would not exceed 75 percent of the program’s total cost.

The system that stores the data from the body cameras would log all viewing, modification, or deletion of stored data in order to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure of stored data. Law enforcement officers would be prohibited from accessing the system without authorization.

Data gathered through body cameras obtained through this program would only be used in gathering evidence related to a crime, misconduct investigations, and for limited training purposes. The transfer of data to another law enforcement or intelligence agency would be prohibited, except for:

  • Criminal investigations where there is reasonable suspicion that the requested data contains evidence related to that investigation.

  • Civil rights claims investigating any right, privilege, or immunity that is protected by the Constitution or laws of the U.S.

Applications would be made to the Assistant Attorney General by the chief executive of a state, local government, or Indian tribe. Within 90 days of this bill’s enactment the Assistant Attorney General would release the requirements of the grant application process.

Within two years of grants being disbursed, the Assistant Attorney General would conduct a study on the impact of body cameras on the use of force by police officers, its effect on public safety, storage issues, and best practices for the use of body cameras. This study would be sent to Congress within 180 days of its completion.


Of Note: A 2013 survey found that about a quarter of the 254 U.S. police departments that responded use body cameras, though it is unknown how many total law enforcement agencies are using body cameras. It is currently up to local law enforcement agencies to determine how to handle the data they collect -- but the DOJ has published a guidebook of “Recommendations and Lessons Learned."

The issue of police-worn body cameras became a point of national discussion after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. As USA Today points out:
“Other recent racially charged incidents, including the police shooting death of Walter Scott in North Charleston, SC, and the death of Freddie Gray, who suffered severe spinal cord injuries while in Baltimore Police custody, have kept the issue in the national spotlight.”

While proponents argue that police cameras may have deterred or at least provided clarity in the aftermath of those incidents, detractors aren’t so sure -- noting that interpretations of video and photo evidence are often as varied as the interpretations of police actions themselves.

A similar version of this bill was introduced in December 2014, but it failed to progress out of committee before the 113th Congress concluded.


Media:

Summary by Eric Revell
(Photo Credit: Flickr user North Charleston)