In Major Shift Federal Agents Will Be Required to Wear Body Cameras When Serving Search, Arrest Warrants

 In a major policy shift federal agents will be required to wear body cameras when serving search and arrest warrants.

Previously state and local law enforcement officers were required to turn off their cameras while working on joint operations with their federal counterparts, even when their own policies required cameras.

This seems like a common sense reform and adds a measure of accountability and transparency already required of many local and state police departments and officers.

Via 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.

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.

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.

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.”

Even though we are no fan of Joe Biden or his administration this does seem like a common sense reform that should have been implemented long ago.

It is shocking but not surprising that federal law enforcement agents were held to a different standard when it comes to body cameras than local law enforcement and this seems like good news.