House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

Used throughout the country, body-worn cameras are a useful tool for our law enforcement officers.  With 47 percent of the general-purpose agencies and 80 percent of larger police departments in the United States adopting the use of body-worn cameras, it is essential to ensure that the public is aware of what policies and procedures these agencies follow regarding them. 

 

Our legislation would address this by directing law enforcement agencies using body-worn cameras to develop official policies governing when cameras are activated and disabled, accessing the recordings, retention of recordings, and redaction of recordings.  In addition, it would limit who can access these recordings and requires that the adopted policies be made available via a publicly accessible website. 

 

As legislators, it is our duty to ensure that all Pennsylvanians, including our law enforcement and civilians, are protected, and given the transparency they need to feel educated and safe regarding body-worn cameras.  Please join us in supporting this commonsense legislation to make law enforcement policies regarding these useful tools more accessible and understandable to the public.