Policy

Obama wants to buy 50,000 body cams for police, monitor military gear handouts

An extra $263 million in funding would be used toward training cops to use the tech.

Megan Geuss – Dec 1, 2014 6:45 pm | 173

On Monday, the White House released a review of how local law enforcement agencies use equipment, proposing that the federal government spend $263 million over three years to “expand training for law enforcement agencies (LEAs)” and “add more resources for police department reform.” The review included a proposal to dedicate $75 million over three years to buy up to 50,000 body cameras for local LEAs.

The review and its proposals were commissioned by the Obama Administration in August 2014 after the shooting of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. While a few obstructed or blurry videos taken during the shooting by third parties have surfaced, conflicting eye-witness accounts of the incident have escalated the calls for all cops to record interactions with the public using body cameras.

Additionally, the executive branch said it wanted to more closely scrutinize and monitor military equipment provided to local police departments by the federal government. The Ferguson Police Department was also criticized for its response to the ensuing protests, rolling out tanks to meet largely peaceful ranks of protesters in the early days after the shooting.

Still, the report released today only proposes certain measures, and an official list of objectives remains to be drafted. The White House said in its press release that it would direct “relevant agencies to work together and with law enforcement and civil rights and civil liberties organizations to develop specific recommendations within 120 days.”

Body cams

While today’s review is certainly a step forward in rhetoric, police departments must pair body cameras with rules about when an officer must have the camera on, how the subsequent footage is handled after an incident, and how the footage can be used in order to protect citizens and their privacy. Early studies show [PDF] that when correctly used, body-worn cameras can dramatically reduce the number of “use of force” incidents by police and citizen complaints against police.

Kara Dansky, senior counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, told Ars that the ACLU is “hoping that the administration will practice what it preaches” when it comes to giving out body cameras and ensuring that the equipment comes with rules and training.

It’s also still unclear whether the body camera funding will be encouraged for the police departments that need the oversight the most. The White House press release suggested that “a new Body Worn Camera Partnership Program would provide a 50 percent match to States/localities who purchase body worn cameras and requisite storage.” But having such an open program would mean that departments could opt out of buying body-cams entirely or use the equipment with little oversight.

Today only a handful of police departments require their officers to wear body cameras, with the Ferguson Police Department as the latest addition to the group after two private companies donated 50 cameras to the Missouri cops. While Ars has extensively covered incidents where cops have told citizens that they can not record police activity, police officers have increasingly embraced technology as well. The most recent incident occurred this weekend, when a police officer was caught on video questioning a black man for simply walking down the street with his hands in his pockets. The man started filming the officer, and the officer pulled out his iPhone and started filming the man at the same time. The officer later allowed the man to leave without incident.

A check on the local arsenal

The other issue addressed by the White House review was the way in which “controlled property” from the US Department of Defense is given to police departments. This property is generally surplus from a number of federal agencies like the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and so forth. Since September 11, 2001, the review explains, the federal government has given more and more support to these programs, giving military-grade property like high-powered weapons and tactical material to local police departments.

The review admits that despite these increases in weaponry giveaways, “training has not been institutionalized, specifically with respect to civil rights and civil liberties protections, or the safe use of equipment received through the federal government. Concerns over the lack of consistent protections have received renewed focus and attention in light of the recent unrest in Ferguson, Missouri.” It goes on:

Although such tactical equipment constitutes a small percentage of the total material that flows from the federal government to LEAs, it is nonetheless substantial. For example, under the DOD 1033 program, only four percent of the property provided to LEAs last year was “controlled property” (property listed on the Department of State Munitions Control List or Department of Commerce Control List). However, this four percent translates into 78,000 pieces of controlled equipment transferred from DOD to LEAs. To date, approximately 460,000 pieces of controlled property are currently in the possession of LEAs across the country.

The White House’s review suggests that, to reign in this over-militarization of the local police, the federal government ought to “develop a consistent list of controlled property allowable for acquisition by LEAs and ensure that all equipment on the list has a legitimate civilian law enforcement purpose.”

Although it’s still unclear what kind of an impact such a proposal would have in the real world, Dansky told Ars that “it certainly suggests that the administration might consider supporting limitations on how the federal government might be wiling to give away equipment to local law enforcement.” She added that the program giving military equipment to local police departments was introduced in the 1990s, and “since the program’s inception, the department of defense has given away more than $4 billion” in equipment.

While it may prove difficult to stem the tide of “controlled property” flowing into local police departments, the White House review tried to emphasize a rebuilding of trust between police and communities. Using body cameras, funding equipment training for police officers, and monitoring the disbursement of military-grade equipment would “help the federal government efforts to be a full partner with state and local LEAs in order to build and sustain trust between communities and those who serve and protect these communities,” it said.

Listing image: Kevin Lim / Flickr

Megan Geuss Staff editor

Megan is a staff editor at Ars Technica. She writes breaking news and has a background in fact-checking and research.

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