I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1188
To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to
authorize a grant program to assist State and local law enforcement
agencies in purchasing body-worn cameras and securely storing and
maintaining recorded data for law enforcement officers.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY11, 2025
Mr. C
OHENintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets
Act of 1968 to authorize a grant program to assist
State and local law enforcement agencies in purchasing
body-worn cameras and securely storing and maintaining
recorded data for law enforcement officers.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Police Creating Ac-4
countability by Making Effective Recording Available Act 5
of 2025’’ or the ‘‘Police CAMERA Act of 2025’’. 6
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SEC. 2. MATCHING GRANT PROGRAM FOR LAW ENFORCE-1
MENT BODY-WORN CAMERAS. 2
Title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe 3
Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10101 et seq.) is amended 4
by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘PART MM—MATCHING GRANT PROGRAM FOR 6
LAW ENFORCEMENT BODY-WORN CAMERAS 7
AND RECORDED DATA 8
‘‘SEC. 3031. GRANT PROGRAM AUTHORIZED. 9
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Director of the Bureau of 10
Justice Assistance (in this section referred to as the ‘Di-11
rector’) may make grants to States, units of local govern-12
ment, and Indian Tribes to purchase or lease body-worn 13
cameras for use by State, local, and Tribal law enforce-14
ment officers (as defined in section 2503) and expenses 15
related to the implementation of a body-worn camera pro-16
gram in order to deter excessive force, improve account-17
ability and transparency of use of force by law enforce-18
ment officers, assist in responding to complaints against 19
law enforcement officers, and improve evidence collection. 20
‘‘(b) D
URATION OFGRANTS.— 21
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Grants awarded under this 22
part shall be 2 years in duration. 23
‘‘(2) D
ISBURSEMENT OF GRANT AMOUNT .—In 24
disbursing a grant awarded to an entity under this 25
section— 26
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‘‘(A) upon awarding the grant to the enti-1
ty, the Director shall disburse 50 percent of the 2
total grant amount to the entity; and 3
‘‘(B) upon demonstration by the entity of 4
completion of the requirements in subsection 5
(d)(1), the Director shall disburse the remain-6
ing 50 percent of the total grant amount to the 7
entity. 8
‘‘(c) U
SE OFFUNDS.—Grants awarded under this 9
section shall be— 10
‘‘(1) distributed directly to the State, unit of 11
local government, or Indian Tribe; and 12
‘‘(2) used for— 13
‘‘(A) the purchase or lease of body-worn 14
cameras for law enforcement officers on patrol 15
in the jurisdiction of the grantee; 16
‘‘(B) any costs relating to the implementa-17
tion of a body-worn camera program, including 18
law enforcement officer training or the storage, 19
maintenance, or security of recorded data col-20
lected under a body-worn camera program; or 21
‘‘(C) implementing policies or procedures 22
to comply with the requirements described in 23
subsection (d). 24
‘‘(d) R
EQUIREMENTS.— 25
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‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Director shall award a 1
grant under this section to a State, unit of local gov-2
ernment, or Indian Tribe requesting the grant that 3
commits to— 4
‘‘(A) establishing policies and procedures 5
in accordance with the requirements described 6
in paragraph (2) before law enforcement offi-7
cers use of body-worn cameras; 8
‘‘(B) adopting recorded data collection and 9
retention protocols as described in paragraph 10
(3) before law enforcement officers use of body- 11
worn cameras; 12
‘‘(C) making the policies and protocols de-13
scribed in subparagraphs (A) and (B) available 14
to the public; and 15
‘‘(D) complying with the requirements for 16
use of recorded data under paragraph (5). 17
‘‘(2) R
EQUIRED POLICIES AND PROCEDURES .— 18
An entity receiving a grant under this section 19
shall— 20
‘‘(A) develop with community input and 21
publish for public view policies and protocols 22
for— 23
‘‘(i) the safe and effective use of body- 24
worn cameras; 25
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‘‘(ii) the secure storage, handling, and 1
destruction of recorded data collected by 2
body-worn cameras; 3
‘‘(iii) protecting the privacy rights of 4
any individual who may be recorded by a 5
body-worn camera; 6
‘‘(iv) protecting the constitutional 7
rights of any individual on whom facial 8
recognition technology is used; 9
‘‘(v) limitations on the use of body- 10
worn cameras in conjunction with facial 11
recognition technology for instances, in-12
cluding— 13
‘‘(I) the use of facial recognition 14
technology only with judicial author-15
ization; 16
‘‘(II) the use of facial recognition 17
technology only for imminent threats 18
or serious crimes; and 19
‘‘(III) the use of facial recogni-20
tion technology with double 21
verification of identified faces; 22
‘‘(vi) the release of any recorded data 23
collected by a body-worn camera in accord-24
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ance with the open records laws, if any, of 1
the State; and 2
‘‘(vii) making recorded data available 3
to prosecutors, defense attorneys, and 4
other officers of the court in accordance 5
with paragraph (5); and 6
‘‘(B) conduct periodic evaluations of the 7
security of the storage and handling of the 8
body-worn camera data. 9
‘‘(3) R
ECORDED DATA COLLECTION AND RE -10
TENTION PROTOCOL .—The recorded data collection 11
and retention protocol described in this paragraph is 12
a protocol that— 13
‘‘(A) requires— 14
‘‘(i) a law enforcement officer who is 15
wearing a body-mounted camera to provide 16
an explanation if an activity that is re-17
quired to be recorded by the body-mounted 18
camera is not recorded; 19
‘‘(ii) a law enforcement officer who is 20
wearing a body-mounted camera to obtain 21
consent to be recorded from a crime victim 22
or witness before interviewing the victim or 23
witness; 24
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‘‘(iii) the collection of recorded data 1
unrelated to a legitimate law enforcement 2
purpose be minimized to the greatest ex-3
tent practicable; 4
‘‘(iv) the system used to store re-5
corded data collected by body-worn cam-6
eras shall log all viewing, modification, or 7
deletion of stored recorded data and shall 8
prevent, to the greatest extent practicable, 9
the unauthorized access or disclosure of 10
stored recorded data; 11
‘‘(v) any law enforcement officer be 12
prohibited from accessing the stored data 13
without an authorized purpose; and 14
‘‘(vi) the law enforcement agency to 15
collect and report statistical data on— 16
‘‘(I) incidences of use of force, 17
disaggregated by race, ethnicity, gen-18
der, and age of the victim; 19
‘‘(II) the number of complaints 20
filed against law enforcement officers; 21
‘‘(III) the disposition of com-22
plaints filed against law enforcement 23
officers; 24
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‘‘(IV) the number of times cam-1
era footage is used for evidence collec-2
tion in investigations of crimes; and 3
‘‘(V) any other additional statis-4
tical data that the Director deter-5
mines should be collected and re-6
ported; 7
‘‘(B) allows an individual to file a com-8
plaint with a law enforcement agency relating 9
to the improper use of body-worn cameras; and 10
‘‘(C) complies with any other requirements 11
established by the Director. 12
‘‘(4) R
EPORTING.—Statistical data required to 13
be collected under paragraph (3)(A)(vi) shall be re-14
ported to the Director, who shall— 15
‘‘(A) establish a standardized reporting 16
system for statistical data collected under this 17
program; and 18
‘‘(B) establish a national database of sta-19
tistical data recorded under this program. 20
‘‘(5) U
SE OR TRANSFER OF RECORDED DATA .— 21
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Recorded data col-22
lected by an entity receiving a grant under this 23
section from a body-mounted camera shall be 24
used only in internal and external investigations 25
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of misconduct by a law enforcement agency or 1
officer, if there is reasonable suspicion that a 2
recording contains evidence of a crime, or for 3
limited training purposes. The Director shall es-4
tablish rules to ensure that the recorded data is 5
used only for the purposes described in this 6
subparagraph. 7
‘‘(B) P
ROHIBITION ON TRANSFER .—Ex-8
cept as provided in subparagraph (C), an entity 9
receiving a grant under this section may not 10
transfer any recorded data collected by the enti-11
ty from a body-mounted camera to another law 12
enforcement or intelligence agency. 13
‘‘(C) E
XCEPTIONS.— 14
‘‘(i) C
RIMINAL INVESTIGATION .—An 15
entity receiving a grant under this section 16
may transfer recorded data collected by the 17
entity from a body-mounted camera to an-18
other law enforcement agency or intel-19
ligence agency for use in a criminal inves-20
tigation if the requesting law enforcement 21
or intelligence agency has reasonable sus-22
picion that the requested data contains evi-23
dence relating to the crime being inves-24
tigated. 25
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‘‘(ii) CIVIL RIGHTS CLAIMS.—An enti-1
ty receiving a grant under this section may 2
transfer recorded data collected by the law 3
enforcement agency from a body-mounted 4
camera to another law enforcement agency 5
for use in an investigation of any right, 6
privilege, or immunity secured or protected 7
by the Constitution or laws of the United 8
States. 9
‘‘(e) M
ATCHINGFUNDS.— 10
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-11
graph (3), the Federal share of the cost of a pro-12
gram carried out using a grant under this part may 13
not exceed 75 percent of the total cost of the pro-14
gram. 15
‘‘(2) I
NDIAN ASSISTANCE.—Any funds appro-16
priated by Congress for the activities of any agency 17
of an Indian Tribal government or the Bureau of In-18
dian Affairs performing law enforcement functions 19
on any Indian lands may be used to provide the non- 20
Federal share of the matching requirement described 21
in paragraph (1). 22
‘‘(3) W
AIVER.—The Director may waive, in 23
whole or in part, the matching requirement de-24
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scribed in paragraph (1) in the case of fiscal hard-1
ship, as determined by the Director. 2
‘‘(f) A
LLOCATION OFFUNDS.—For fiscal years 2026 3
through 2028, of the amounts appropriated to the Bureau 4
of Justice Assistance, $30,000,000 shall be used to carry 5
out this part. 6
‘‘(g) A
UDIT ANDASSESSMENT.— 7
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years 8
after the date of enactment of this part, the Director 9
of the Office of Audit, Assessment, and Management 10
shall perform an assessment of the grant program 11
and the policies and protocols of the grantees. 12
‘‘(2) R
EPORTS.—Not later than September 1 of 13
each year, beginning 2 years after the date of enact-14
ment of this part, each recipient of a grant under 15
this part shall submit to the Director of the Office 16
of Audit, Assessment, and Management a report 17
that— 18
‘‘(A) describes the progress of the body- 19
worn camera program; and 20
‘‘(B) contains recommendations on ways in 21
which the Federal Government, States, and 22
units of local government can further support 23
the implementation of the program. 24
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‘‘(3) REVIEW.—The Director of the Office of 1
Audit, Assessment, and Management shall evaluate 2
the policies and protocols of the grantees and take 3
such steps as the Director of the Office of Audit, As-4
sessment, and Management determines necessary to 5
ensure compliance with the program. 6
‘‘SEC. 3032. BODY-WORN CAMERA TRAINING TOOLKIT. 7
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Director shall establish and 8
maintain a toolkit for law enforcement agencies, academia, 9
and other relevant entities to provide training and tech-10
nical assistance, including best practices for implementa-11
tion, model policies and procedures, and research mate-12
rials. 13
‘‘(b) M
ECHANISM.—In establishing the toolkit re-14
quired to under subsection (a), the Director may consoli-15
date research, practices, templates, and tools that been de-16
veloped by expert and law enforcement agencies across the 17
country. 18
‘‘SEC. 3033. APPLICATIONS. 19
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—To request a grant under this 20
part, the chief executive of a State, unit of local govern-21
ment, or Indian Tribe shall submit an application to the 22
Director in a form and containing information as the Di-23
rector may reasonably require. 24
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‘‘(b) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 90 days after 1
the date of the enactment of this part, the Director shall 2
promulgate regulations to implement this part, including 3
the information that shall be included and the require-4
ments that the States, units of local government, and In-5
dian Tribes must meet in submitting the applications re-6
quired under this section. 7
‘‘SEC. 3034. STUDY. 8
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after the 9
date on which all grants are awarded under this part, the 10
Director shall conduct a study on— 11
‘‘(1) the efficacy of body-worn cameras in deter-12
ring excessive force by law enforcement officers; 13
‘‘(2) the impact of body-worn cameras on the 14
accountability and transparency of the use of force 15
by law enforcement officers; 16
‘‘(3) the impact of body-worn cameras on re-17
sponses to and adjudications of complaints of exces-18
sive force; 19
‘‘(4) the effect of the use of body-worn cameras 20
on the safety of law enforcement officers on patrol; 21
‘‘(5) the effect of the use of body-worn cameras 22
on public safety; 23
‘‘(6) the impact of body-worn cameras on evi-24
dence collection for criminal investigations; 25
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‘‘(7) issues relating to the secure storage and 1
handling of recorded data from the body-worn cam-2
eras; 3
‘‘(8) issues relating to the privacy of citizens 4
and officers recorded on body-worn cameras; 5
‘‘(9) issues relating to the constitutional rights 6
of individuals on whom facial recognition technology 7
is used; 8
‘‘(10) issues relating to limitations on the use 9
of facial recognition technology; 10
‘‘(11) issues relating to the public’s access to 11
body-worn camera footage; 12
‘‘(12) the need for proper training of law en-13
forcement officers that use body-worn cameras; 14
‘‘(13) best practices in the development of pro-15
tocols for the safe and effective use of body-worn 16
cameras; 17
‘‘(14) a review of law enforcement agencies that 18
found body-worn cameras to be unhelpful in the op-19
erations of the agencies; and 20
‘‘(15) any other factors that the Director deter-21
mines are relevant in evaluating the efficacy of body- 22
worn cameras. 23
‘‘(b) R
EPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the 24
date on which the study required under subsection (a) is 25
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completed, the Director shall submit to Congress a report 1
on the study, which shall include any policy recommenda-2
tions that the Director considers appropriate.’’. 3
Æ
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