LAW ENFORCEMENTThe DEA Once Touted Body Cameras for Their “Enhanced Transparency.” Now the Agency Is Abandoning Them.
An internal email obtained by ProPublica said the agency made the change to be “consistent” with a Trump executive order. But at least two other federal law enforcement agencies are still requiring body cameras.
The Drug Enforcement Administration has quietly ended its body camera program barely four years after it began, according to an internal email obtained by ProPublica.
On April 2, DEA headquarters emailed employees announcing that the program had been terminated effective the day before. The DEA has not publicly announced the policy change, but by early April, links to pages about body camera policies on the DEA’s website were broken.
The email said the agency made the change to be “consistent” with a Trump executive order rescinding the 2022 requirement that all federal law enforcement agents use body cameras.
But at least two other federal law enforcement agencies within the Justice Department — the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — are still requiring body cameras, according to their spokespeople. The FBI referred questions about its body camera policy to the Justice Department, which declined to comment.
The DEA did not respond to questions about its decision to stop using the cameras, saying that the agency “does not comment on tools and techniques.” Reuters reported on the change as part of a story about budget cuts for law enforcement offices.
One former federal prosecutor expressed concern that the change would make life more difficult for DEA agents.
“The vast majority of times I viewed body camera footage is based on allegations from a defense attorney about what a cop did,” said David DeVillers, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio. “And I would say 95% of the time it absolves the cop of wrongdoing.”
The Justice Department started requiring that its federal agents wear the devices in 2021 in the wake of the protests over George Floyd’s death the previous summer.
“We welcome the addition of body worn cameras and appreciate the enhanced transparency and assurance they provide to the public and to law enforcement officers working hard to keep our communities safe and healthy,” then-DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in a Sept. 1, 2021, press release announcing the use of the cameras.
In May 2022, then-President Joe Biden issued an executive order expanding the use of body cameras to all federal law enforcement officers.
In January, the incoming Trump administration rescinded that order, along with almost 100 others it considered “harmful.”
