U.S. agents to start wearing body cameras when serving warrants
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[June 08, 2021]
(Reuters) - U.S. law-enforcement
agents will be required to wear body cameras when serving search and
arrest warrants, the Justice Department said on Monday, adding a measure
of accountability already required of many state and local police
departments.
Federal agents had previously been barred from wearing cameras, a policy
that sometimes created tension during joint operations with state and
local police.
The new directive, announced by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco,
comes as the Biden administration has shown sympathy to victims of
police brutality in cases such as the murder of George Floyd while in
Minneapolis police custody a year ago, a case that triggered street
protests across the country.
Agents from the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement
Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms & Explosives will be required to wear cameras and activate them
when serving an arrest warrant, executing a search warrant, or during
other pre-planned operations.
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Monaco ordered the chiefs of those services to submit a body camera
policy for review within 30 days, including a plan to phase in
implementation.
She also required federal agents be made aware of a policy implemented
in October 2020 that permits state and local police to wear body cameras
while serving in joint operations with the federal agencies.
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U.S. federal agents escort a suspect at Reforma border crossing
bridge in Ciudad Juarez May 26, 2015. REUTERS/Jose Luis
Gonzalez/File Photo
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Before then, state and local police were required to
turn off their cameras while working on joint operations with their
federal counterparts, even when their own policies required cameras.
Additionally, federal prosecutors were ordered to devise a training
program to help make the recordings admissible as evidence in court.
In her memorandum announcing the new policy, Monaco cited the
importance of "transparency and accountability."
"I am confident that these policies will continue to engender the
trust and confidence of the American people in the work of the
Department of Justice," Monaco said.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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