Lawmakers push for body cameras amid excessive force claims in DC arrests

WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — Local officials said they would introduce a bill requiring federal law enforcement to use body-worn and dashboard cameras when Congress returns in September.

This comes after Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and Don Beyer (D-Va.) say officers have been using excessive force to make arrests as part of President Donald Trump’s “unnecessary and inflammatory” takeover of the District.

The bill would require all federal police officers — including Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Park Police (USPP) — to wear body cameras and use dashboard cameras in marked vehicles.

The bill was first introduced after USPP officers shot and killed 25-year-old Bijan Ghaisar in November 2017. At the time, the officers shot at Ghaisar after a stop-and-go chase along the George Washington Memorial Parkway. He was unarmed.

The officers involved were later exonerated and cleared of any wrongdoing.

That bill passed the House in 2021, Norton and Beyer noted in a news release on Wednesday. Norton also previously referred to the Jan. 6 insurrection as a reason for the bill, saying a lack of body camera footage made it difficult to identify those involved or learn the details of what happened.

Now, she cites Trump’s takeover of the D.C. police department as another reason for the bill.

“President Trump’s unjustified and inflammatory surge of federal law enforcement officers in the District has resulted in violent arrests using excessive force, but without body cameras, we’re left to rely on videos filmed by onlookers and public reporting to learn what happened,” Norton wrote.

She said body and dashboard camera requirements would provide transparency and a “chance at accountability” for people who are violently arrested.

“I have the same concern with ICE raids in Northern Virginia, which like the federal escalation in DC, are carried out by masked agents in unmarked vehicles who give no justification for their actions,” Beyer added.

He said that many of the encounters between federal law enforcement and D.C. residents have been captured on video taken by bystanders or journalists. He wrote that he wonders what the public is not seeing because it has not been caught on video.

“These abuses of power cry out for transparency and accountability, and our bill would answer that need. Every one of these officers should be wearing a body camera,” Beyer continued.

The bill will be introduced to Congress in September.