ICE will not turn on body cameras automatically despite watchdog recommendation

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement has rejected a government watchdog’s recommendation that agents’ body cameras be automatically activated when weapons are drawn.

In that report, GAO — an independent congressional watchdog — found that ICE and Customs and Border Protection had not updated their body camera policies in several years. As a result, the agencies had failed to account for recent developments, including a growing number of cameras now in use.

Still, the report found that CBP uses technology that automatically turns on body cameras when officers pull out their weapons or turn on emergency lights. ICE, however, does not.

Federal immigration agents are generally required to turn on their body cameras at the start of an enforcement encounter, including arrests and vehicle stops.

However, ICE and CBP personnel interviewed at six of 10 locations indicated they were not always sure when they were required to activate their cameras. Some described camera use as “up to interpretation,” “not mandated” and containing “gray areas.”

DHS told GAO that automatic camera activation would pose certain risks to ICE, such as false activations that could inadvertently record “sensitive interactions with informants or victims.”

White House border czar Tom Homan said in July that agents will be required to use the devices “whenever possible” and added: “I’m a big proponent of body cams, always have been.”

At least 23 people have been shot — six of them fatally — by federal immigration agents since last year, The New York Times reported. Earlier this month, a 28-year-old man was injured when he was shot in the neck by an ICE agent during an arrest operation in Manhattan.