Drug Administration quietly completed its body camera program almost four years after it started, according to the internal email obtained by Propublica.
On April 2, DEA staff announced that the program was stopped effectively the day before. DEA did not publicly announce a change of politics but by early April, Links to pages about body camera policy The DEA site was broken.
The e -mail states that the agency has changed “consistent” with the executive order of Trump, canceling the requirement of 2022 to all federal law enforcement agencies use body cameras.
But at least two other federal law enforcement agencies in the Ministry of Justice – the US Marshals and the alcohol bureau, tobacco, gunshot and explosives – still require body cameras, their representatives reported. The FBI sent questions about its body camera policy to the Ministry of Justice, which refused to comment.
DEA did not answer questions about her decision to stop using cameras, saying that the agency “does not comment on the instruments and methods”. Reuters reported changes within the story of the Reduction of the budget for law enforcement.
One of the former federal prosecutors expressed concern that the changes would make the DEA agents.
“The vast majority of times viewed the footage from the body’s camera based on the defender’s charges that a police officer did,” said David Davillers, a former US prosecutor in South Ohio. “And I would say that 95% of the time is releasing a police violation.”
The Justice Department began demanding that its federal agents wore devices in 2021 after protests over George Floida’s death last summer.
“We welcome the addition of the cameras that wear the bodies, and appreciate the expanded transparency and confidence they provide to the community and law enforcement officers working to keep our communities safe and healthy,” said the then administrator Anne Milgram at A, September 1, 2021, Press -Release announcing the use of cameras.
In May 2022, then President Joe Biden issued an order to expand the use of cameras for all federal law enforcement officers.
In January, the Trump administration canceled the order, as well as almost 100 others, it considered “harmful”.
In early February, the immigration and customs execution of the United States, which is part of the Internal Security Department, was One of the first agencies that got rid of body cameras. The following videos show that civilian immigration agents create arrests without visible body cameras.
DOJ wrote in a report by the 2022 inspector that the cameras were “a means of raising responsibility in the police and the public’s trust in law enforcement.” Studies consistently show that the departments that use body cameras feel the fall of complaints of officers, reports A Commercial Police Executive ForumAlthough it is unclear whether an officer’s improvement or a decrease in frivolous complaints is due to a decrease in the improvement of the officer’s behavior.
“The elimination of these videos really selects the tool that we saw useful for law enforcement practice,” said Cameron Makelhini, executive director of the National Association of Civil Supervision. “It is also a great learning tool in addition to keeping community members safety from the potential violation of the rules that can happen.”
Doj has invested a lot of money in the body’s camera initiative. In August 2021, she awarded Axon, a company dominated by Body Camera, a $ 30.4 million contract on the camera and software to process the evidence they created. According to Axon, the contract remains active. But only about one sixth part was paid, reports Federal contract data.
The latest publicly available version of the DEA camera policy dates from December 2022. This only requires agents to wear devices when they carried out previously planned arrests, searches and steps required by the warrant. It also required only DEA employees to wear body cameras when they worked in the US.
The agents had 72 hours after the surgery for downloading their videos, unless the shooting occurred, and in this case they were instructed to load the video as soon as possible. The policy is outlined in detail, how and with whom and the evidence from the cameras, you need to contact the event that used the force, and it allowed DEA to use video -proof when investigating their own officers.
DEA planned to pursue a policy in the stages that its officers across the country are in the device when executing orders or conducting planned arrests. In its 2025 financial year Request for budget For Congress, the agency asked for $ 15.8 million and $ 69, including five lawyers, “to allow a phased DEA implementation plan across the country that wore the body.”
Records received by a request for citizens’ Law on Liability and Ethics in Washington show that the Doj Era Doj had an ambitious plan for the capture of metrics and data on the efficiency and use of body cameras with its law enforcement agencies.
Laura theiranachor, Senior lawyer Crew, said that before the federal law enforcement agencies began to wear body cameras, several local Police institutions refused to participate In federal operational groups, because it would make its officers remove their cameras.
“This is a protective measure for public officers,” said theiranachor. “And it allows state and federal law enforcement agencies to work together in harmony.”
