WASHINGTON — A plan to expand the District’s police body camera program to include all patrol officers could be delayed after a vote by the city council on Tuesday.
An amendment sponsored by council member Kenyan McDuffie would delay the expansion of the pilot program in 2016, until the city can fully fund costs associated with making the footage publicly available. The mayor has said the bill for that could be $1.5 million annually.
This would not affect the 168 body cameras currently in use.
Mayor Muriel Bowser has supported withholding the video from the cameras, a stance McDuffie has opposed.
The measure also calls for an advisory group to be formed, which would recommend rules for the program to the mayor, who would in turn bring those to city council.
The advisory group would be made up of the following agencies and organizations
- The Committee on the Judiciary of the Council of the District of Columbia;
- The Office of Police Complaints;
- The Office of Open Government of the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability;
- The Fraternal Order of Police, D.C. Police Union;
- The Electronic Privacy and Information Center;
- The D.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence;
- The American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area;
- The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press;
- The D.C. Open Government Coalition;
- The Office of the Attorney General;
- The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia; and
- The Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.
