Dem bill requires police body cameras

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) has introduced legislation that would require police officers to wear body cameras.

Cleaver’s bill would apply to all law enforcement agencies receiving federal grants from the Department of Justice.

{mosads}Cleaver, a former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said the bill would increase transparency and ensure concrete photographic evidence in cases where a police officer’s behavior is questioned.

“This legislation is important to any and all members of the public who encounter a law enforcement officer, and it is important for the officers themselves,” Cleaver said.

“The goal is to increase transparency, protect the rights of all parties involved, and to provide better evidence for any police investigation, both for the citizens and the officers,” the Missouri Democrat added.

Cleaver’s measure, titled the Camera Authorization and Maintenance Act, would create a grant program to help agencies buy the cameras as well as a task force to study police body camera training.

Cleaver represents a district about 250 miles from Ferguson, Mo., where unarmed black teenager Michael Brown was shot by a white police officer. A Missouri grand jury decided last month not to indict the officer, Darren Wilson, who has since resigned from the police force.

President Obama earlier this month announced $263 million in funding for law enforcement agencies to purchase body cameras and improve officer training. 

But some critics of police body cameras argue that they wouldn’t necessarily make officers more accountable, pointing to the case of Eric Garner, who died in Staten Island after being placed in a chokehold by police officers. Video clearly showed the events that led to Garner’s death, yet a grand jury did not issue an indictment.

Cleaver said he will introduce his bill again in the new Congress, because the current House session has ended for the year.