There are major questions about both security and transparency amid reports that Border Patrol agents may no longer use body-worn cameras. NBC 7’s Shelby Bremer reports.
On Feb. 19, two days after this story was published, NBC 7 received the following statement from a CBP spokesperson — Ed. :
- We do not comment on leaked information. However, we can share that there was a potential safety risk associated with the body-worn cameras for a temporary period which has now concluded. U.S. Border Patrol agents are once again using body-worn cameras in accordance with CBP policy.
- CBP continuously evaluates the safety and effectiveness of its law enforcement technology and operations, and any time a safety issue is raised, we work through it quickly to ensure the safety of our personnel and the effectiveness of our mission.
Major questions were raised Monday about both security and transparency amid reports that Border Patrol agents may no longer use body-worn cameras.
Customs and Border Protection did not answer questions about the potential change, which a San Diego civil rights attorney called “really concerning and disappointing.” The news was first reported by NewsNation.
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“It's tremendously important for any law enforcement agency or organization,” attorney Joseph McMullen said of the body-worn cameras. “They have been used in the local policing context, where people are interacting with citizens, and officers have some way to show and keep a record of the way that those interactions are going down.
“It can be helpful for the police, frankly. It protects police officers from false accusations of misconduct, but it protects citizens too. This general, you know, accountability with a record of what's happening is important for everyone when you have tremendous power given to officers and law enforcement agencies in the way that they interact with the public.”
Reports surfaced that the Border Patrol may discontinue the use of the cameras over concerns about Bluetooth technology.
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“We're all very familiar with this technology,” privacy advocate Seth Hall said. “It's just that in this case, the technology is being used for something that somebody didn't quite understand or imagined it would be used for.”
Hall said that Bluetooth signal can be used to locate the cameras, as well as the officers or agents wearing them.
“All of this kind of surveillance technology is, at the very best, a double-edged sword,” Hall said. “There are the features and the technologies that we think are exciting and useful, but they always, always come with these other sides of the technology that enable potential harm, potential abuse.”
Both Hall and McMullen noted that it’s not clear whether the Bluetooth concerns were the motivation behind the potential policy change.
“Law enforcement has had a touch-and-go relationship with body-worn cameras, and so it's entirely possible that there could be other reasons, maybe more related to not necessarily wanting to be having to record everything they do all the time.” Hall said. “That is a controversy that's been going on for a long time.”
McMullen said the effort to deploy body-worn cameras among federal law enforcement has been in the works for more than a decade, after CBP determined in 2014 the use was feasible, did a “test run” in 2018 and then recommended their use along the border. An agency directive in 2021 advanced the effort with a benchmark of 6,000 intended to be put into circulation.
Videos from body-worn cameras have often helped to resolve disputes that could easily become one person’s word against another’s, McMullen noted.
“It's been the crucial evidence in cases, especially where, you know, you might not have eyewitnesses,” McMullen said, adding, “a lot of the interactions with Border Patrol are out in some of the most remote regions of our country.
“We can't rely or hope that, you know, there might be people who just happen to be passing by with cell phones to really know what happens when we have serious incidents.
“We're at a moment where trust is very important," McMullen said. "Accountability is important. And so right now is the time that we really need to make sure that we have these cameras in place.”
“It's scary,” McMullen continued. “It creates fear, it creates distrust, and in our community in particular, where, with such a large organization, people from the Border Patrol, CBP are all around us — it's terrifying.”
