ICE rejects push for automatically activated body cameras

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) resisted a recommendation from a government watchdog to use automated body camera activation that would engage when a weapon is drawn.

A Wednesday report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reviewed ICE’s deployment of body cameras after historic levels of funding were funneled to the immigration agency.

The report, requested by congressional Democrats, comes as they have fumed about slow deployment of the cameras as well as ICE officers’ failure to activate them in a string of shootings, including during multiple fatal interactions. ICE officers have killed six people since President Trump took office.

“ICE has not implemented controls to help ensure compliance with activating cameras when required by policy,” GAO concluded in its report.

“Only CBP has automated controls, such as automatic camera activation technology. ICE does not have similar automated control activities in place to help ensure that personnel activate their cameras as required by policy or to reliably monitor whether repeated instances of failure to activate occur. This presents the risk of personnel not capturing footage of incidents when they are required to do so,” the GAO wrote, using an abbreviation for Customs and Border Protection.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) broadly agreed with GAO’s recommendations but rebuffed the suggestion of automated camera activation.

“DHS stated that, for ICE, automatic activation presents operational risks, including inadvertent or false activations during routine movement. DHS also stated that these inadvertent or false activations could result in the unauthorized recording of sensitive interactions with informants or victims, or the recording of bystanders engaged in First Amendment activities in areas where camera use is restricted,” the report states.

“However, DHS’s response did not include information on environments where automated activation could be effective, or other controls that could help ensure compliance with activating cameras when required by policy.”

House Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said he would be introducing legislation to require automatic body camera activation.

“ICE — which has shown time and again it thinks it is immune to accountability — is unwilling to implement automatic activation for its cameras, increasing the risk of missing critical recordings, just like what happened when Wilber Garces Perez was shot by an ICE agent in Austin last month. This is completely unacceptable and I will be introducing legislation in the coming days to close this gap and ensure all DHS body-worn cameras have the recommended automatic activation,” he said in a statement.