ICE will release body camera video only when seen in the agency’s ‘best
interests,’ policy says
[August 08, 2026]
By RYAN J. FOLEY
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is moving to equip officers with
body cameras in the next two months but the agency's policy gives it
broad control over what footage will be made public by specifying any
releases must be in its “best interests.”
After years of delays, ICE said its field officers nationwide will have
body-worn cameras by the end of September. The rollout comes after
recent fatal shootings by officers enforcing President Donald Trump's
immigration crackdown have intensified pressure for accountability that
the cameras could provide.
But the agency's body-worn camera policy could mean taxpayers who are
pitching in tens of millions of dollars to pay for the cameras may be
kept in the dark about some high-profile confrontations, at least in
their immediate aftermath.
The policy says ICE will promptly release video of shootings and other
encounters in which its agents cause death or serious injury only after
determining “it is in the best interests of the agency” to do so. That
gives its director discretion to release recordings that reflect well on
the agency’s image while working to keep others secret, experts on body
camera policies said.
Such selective releases are routine in some law enforcement agencies but
usually not so clearly contemplated in policy, according to professor
Christopher Schneider of Brandon University in Canada, a co-author of
the book “Police Body-Worn Cameras: Media and the New Discourse of
Police Reform.”
“In some ways, ICE is saying the quiet part out loud,” he said.
“Body-worn cameras are being used as contemporary image-work tools to
present the police to the public in the most favorable way possible.”
Body camera policy allows withholding some video
ICE's policy requires officers to activate cameras during routine
enforcement activities, including while making arrests, executing search
warrants and responding to emergencies.
After shootings or other serious confrontations, a committee that
includes top ICE officials and lawyers will review footage and recommend
whether to release it promptly, according to the policy issued in
February 2025.
If the answer is yes, the recording could be released within 72 hours.
But if ICE's director finds “specific and compelling circumstances”
justify withholding the video, they have the authority to block or
indefinitely delay the release, the policy says.
The policy does not elaborate on such circumstances, and ICE did not
respond to a question from The Associated Press about how it would make
such decisions.
Practices vary widely in the U.S. In Chicago, a police watchdog agency
routinely releases video of shootings and other serious use-of-force
incidents within 60 days. In Philadelphia, the police department very
rarely uses its discretion to release video and has no policy for when
to do so.
Even when footage is released, ICE’s policy will require redacting all
officers’ identifying features such as faces, names and badge numbers to
preserve their privacy.
Schneider, who has studied body cameras since their use began spreading
a decade ago, said he does not expect ICE to release footage of fatal
shootings like those last month.
He noted ICE’s sister agency, Customs and Border Protection, has not
released footage of the January shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis
even though it was captured on agents’ cameras. CBP Commissioner Rodney
Scott told lawmakers in February that the video and other materials were
under investigation and would be made public “when it’s appropriate.”
Katherine Hawkins, senior legal analyst at the nonprofit Project On
Government Oversight, said that while it’s better to have body-worn
camera footage than not — because courts could demand it for review —
ICE's policy makes such recordings “virtually useless.”
“Without any clear way for the public to get access to it, it doesn’t do
much good,” she said Friday. “It’s not unheard of for agencies to delay
or withhold or selectively edit footage at all, but to say that
explicitly just really gives the game away.”
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ICE says all officers are getting cameras
ICE spent $30.9 million in July to purchase body camera equipment
from Axon, the Arizona-based company that also manufactures Tasers,
federal records show.
The spending began one day after the fatal shooting of a 25-year-old
motorist in Maine by an ICE officer with a history of violent
behavior. Days earlier, another ICE officer shot and killed a
Houston homebuilder driving to work.
Neither shooting was recorded with body cameras. That angered
members of Congress, who had given ICE $20 million to purchase body
cameras in a bill passed to end a partial government shutdown on
April 30.
ICE said body cameras have been sent to more than half its field
officers and the rest will receive them by the end of September.
That timeline pushes back estimates from earlier public statements.
ICE officers working in the Houston area, where the agency sent more
than 800 cameras, are among those who have started training, said
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat and member of the House
Appropriations Committee.
At least one member of every arrest team will be required to have a
camera, the agency said.
“I think the American people need to see what that officer sees and
hears,” White House border czar Tom Homan said July 19 on CBS’ “Face
the Nation.” “And if you look at the data, body cameras actually
exonerate agents more than they, you know, provide evidence of
wrongdoing.”
Releasing body-worn camera footage is in the interest of both
officers and the community because it can provide context for
officers’ actions, said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the
Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based think tank.
“The community has a right to know, and very often it helps put the
actions of the agents in some perspective,” he said Friday, adding
that ICE could "go a long way in building credibility with the
larger community by being more transparent.”
Schneider said he expects ICE to release recordings that promote the
agency’s mass deportation program by portraying officers as brave
and immigrants as criminals.
“Much of what law enforcement does is convince the public that we
need them and feel safe and they do all this good stuff for us,” he
said. “The more bad stuff the public sees, the more angry the public
gets.”
ICE has taken years to adopt cameras
ICE began testing body cameras in 2021 during President Joe Biden's
administration and distributed 1,400 devices three years later,
saying use would expand as funding became available.
After returning to office in 2025, President Donald Trump rescinded
a Biden order requiring federal law enforcement agencies to use body
cameras.
ICE did not buy body cameras even after it received a historic $75
billion infusion in 2025 and began hiring thousands of new officers.
The July purchases from Axon were made through an existing
government contract that began in 2023, records show.
“This is not hard to deploy, but they’ve slow-rolled it,” said Jason
Houser, who was ICE chief of staff under Biden and helped implement
the agency’s pilot program.
Houser said the Trump administration should have equipped officers
with body cameras when it expanded mass arrests and traffic stops.
Doing so only after several shootings and pressure from Congress “is
clearly a political response” that will not make officers or the
public safer, he said.
“This doesn’t fix the problem of putting officers in a place where
they’re not trained or equipped to carry out the style of operations
that the administration is asking them to do,” he said.
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AP reporter Valerie Gonzalez contributed to this report.
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