I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3364 
To require uniformed Federal police officers to wear body cameras and 
have dashboard cameras in marked vehicles. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 19, 2019 
Ms. NORTON (for herself and Mr. BEYER) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To require uniformed Federal police officers to wear body 
cameras and have dashboard cameras in marked vehicles. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Police Camera 
and Accountability Act of 2019’’. 
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SEC. 2. REQUIREMENTS FOR FEDERAL UNIFORMED OFFI-
CERS REGARDING THE USE OF BODY CAM-
ERAS. 
(a) Uniformed officers with the authority to conduct 
searches and make arrests shall wear a body camera. Such 
body cameras shall— 
(1) have a field of view at least as broad as the 
officer’s vision; and 
(2) be worn in a manner that maximizes the 
camera’s ability to capture video footage of the offi-
cer’s activities. 
(b) Both the video and audio recording functions of 
the body camera shall be activated whenever a uniformed 
officer is responding to a call for service or at the initiation 
of any other law enforcement or investigative encounter 
between a uniformed officer and a member of the public, 
except that when an immediate threat to the officer’s life 
or safety makes activating the camera impossible or dan-
gerous, the officer shall activate the camera at the first 
reasonable opportunity to do so. The body camera shall 
not be deactivated until the encounter has fully concluded 
and the uniformed officer leaves the scene. 
(c) A uniformed officer who is wearing a body camera 
shall notify any subject of the recording that he or she 
is being recorded by a body camera as close to the incep-
tion of the encounter as is reasonably possible. 
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(d) Notwithstanding the requirements of subsection 
(b), the following shall apply to the use of a body camera: 
(1) Prior to entering a private residence with-
out a warrant or in non-exigent circumstances, a 
uniformed officer shall ask the occupant if the occu-
pant wants the officer to discontinue use of the offi-
cer’s body camera. If the occupant responds affirma-
tively, the uniformed officer shall immediately dis-
continue use of the body camera. The officer shall 
record such communication using the officer’s body 
camera. 
(2) When interacting with an apparent crime 
victim, a uniformed officer shall, as soon as prac-
ticable, ask the apparent crime victim if the appar-
ent crime victim wants the officer to discontinue use 
of the officer’s body camera. If the apparent crime 
victim responds affirmatively, the uniformed officer 
shall immediately discontinue use of the body cam-
era. 
(3) When interacting with a person seeking to 
anonymously report a crime or assist in an ongoing 
law enforcement investigation, a uniformed officer 
shall, as soon as practicable, ask the person seeking 
to remain anonymous, if the person seeking to re-
main anonymous wants the officer to discontinue use 
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of the officer’s body camera. If the person seeking 
to remain anonymous responds affirmatively, the 
uniformed officer shall immediately discontinue use 
of the body camera. 
(e) All law enforcement offers to discontinue the use 
of a body camera made pursuant to subsection (d), and 
the responses thereto, shall be recorded by the body cam-
era prior to discontinuing use of the body camera. 
(f) Body cameras shall not be used to gather intel-
ligence information based on First Amendment protected 
speech, associations, or religion, or to record activity that 
is unrelated to a response to a call for service or a law 
enforcement or investigative encounter between a law en-
forcement officer and a member of the public, and shall 
not be equipped with or subjected to any real time facial 
recognition technologies. 
(g) Officers shall not be required to use body cameras 
during investigative or enforcement encounters with the 
public in the case that— 
(1) recording would risk the safety of a con-
fidential informant, citizen informant, or undercover 
officer; 
(2) recording would pose a serious risk to na-
tional security; or 
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(3) the officer is a military police officer, a 
member of the United States Army Criminal Inves-
tigation Command, or a protective detail assigned to 
a Federal or foreign official while performing his or 
her duties. 
(h) Uniformed officers shall not activate a body cam-
era while on the grounds of any public, private or paro-
chial elementary or secondary school, except when re-
sponding to an imminent threat to life or health. 
(i) Body camera video footage shall be retained by 
the law enforcement agency that employs the officer whose 
camera captured the footage, or an authorized agent 
thereof, for 6 months after the date it was recorded, after 
which time such footage shall be permanently deleted. 
(1) During the 6-month retention period, the 
following persons shall have the right to inspect the 
body camera footage: 
(A) Any person who is a subject of body 
camera video footage, and their designated legal 
counsel. 
(B) A parent of a minor subject of body 
camera video footage, and their designated legal 
counsel. 
(C) The spouse, next of kin, or legally au-
thorized designee of a deceased subject of body 
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video footage has evidentiary or exculpatory 
value; 
(D) any uniformed officer, if the video 
footage is being retained solely and exclusively 
for police training purposes; 
(E) any member of the public who is a 
subject of the video footage; 
(F) any parent or legal guardian of a 
minor who is a subject of the video footage; or 
(G) a deceased subject’s spouse, next of 
kin, or legally authorized designee. 
(k) To effectuate subsections (j)(2)(E), (j)(2)(F), and 
(j)(2)(G), any member of the public who is a subject of 
video footage, the parent or legal guardian of a minor who 
is a subject of the video footage, or a deceased subject’s 
next of kin or legally authorized designee, shall be per-
mitted to review the specific video footage in question in 
order to make a determination as to whether they will vol-
untarily request it be subjected to a 3-year retention pe-
riod. 
(l) All video footage of an interaction or event cap-
tured by a body camera, if that interaction or event is 
identified with reasonable specificity and requested by a 
member of the public, shall be provided to the person or 
entity making the request in accordance with the proce-
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dures for requesting and providing government records set 
forth in the section 552a of title 5, United States Code. 
(1) Notwithstanding the public release require-
ments in this subsection, the following categories of 
video footage shall not be released to the public in 
the absence of express written permission from the 
non-law enforcement subjects of the video footage— 
(A) video footage not subject to a min-
imum 3-year retention period pursuant to sub-
section (j); and 
(B) video footage that is subject to a min-
imum 3-year retention period solely and exclu-
sively pursuant to subsection (j)(1)(B) or (j)(2). 
(2) Notwithstanding any time periods estab-
lished for acknowledging and responding to records 
requests in section 552a of title 5, United States 
Code, responses to requests for video footage that is 
subject to a minimum 3-year retention period pursu-
ant to subsection (j)(1)(A), where a subject of the 
video footage is recorded being killed, shot by a fire-
arm, or grievously injured, shall be prioritized and 
the requested video footage shall be provided as ex-
peditiously as possible, but in no circumstances later 
than 5 days following receipt of the request. 
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(3) Whenever doing so is necessary to protect 
personal privacy, the right to a fair trial, the iden-
tity of a confidential source or crime victim, or the 
life or physical safety of any person appearing in 
video footage, redaction technology may be used to 
obscure the face and other personally identifying 
characteristics of that person, including the tone of 
the person’s voice, provided the redaction does not 
interfere with a viewer’s ability to fully, completely, 
and accurately comprehend the events captured on 
the video footage. The following apply to such 
redactions: 
(A) When redaction is performed on video 
footage pursuant to this paragraph, an uned-
ited, original version of the video footage shall 
be retained pursuant to the requirements of 
subsections (i) and (j). 
(B) Except pursuant to the rules for the 
redaction of video footage set forth in this sub-
section or where it is otherwise expressly au-
thorized by this Act, no other editing or alter-
ation of video footage, including a reduction of 
the video footage’s resolution, shall be per-
mitted. 
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(4) The provisions governing the production of 
body camera video footage to the public in this Act 
shall take precedence over all other State and local 
laws, rules, and regulations to the contrary. 
(m) Body camera video footage may not be withheld 
from the public on the basis that it is an investigatory 
record or was compiled for law enforcement purposes 
where any person under investigation or whose conduct 
is under review is a police officer or other law enforcement 
employee and the video footage relates to that person’s 
on-the-job conduct. 
(n) Any video footage retained beyond 6 months sole-
ly and exclusively pursuant to subsection (j)(2)(D) shall 
not be admissible as evidence in any criminal or civil legal 
or administrative proceeding. 
(o) No government agency or official, or law enforce-
ment agency, officer, or official may publicly disclose, re-
lease, or share body camera video footage unless— 
(1) doing so is expressly authorized pursuant to 
this Act or another applicable law; or 
(2) the video footage is subject to public release 
pursuant to subsection (l), and not exempted from 
public release pursuant to subsection (l)(1). 
(p) No uniformed officer shall review or receive an 
accounting of any body camera video footage that is sub-
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ject to a minimum 3-year retention period pursuant to 
subsection (j)(1) prior to completing any required initial 
reports, statements, and interviews regarding the recorded 
event, unless doing so is necessary, while in the field, to 
address an immediate threat to life or safety. 
(q) Video footage may not be— 
(1) in the case of footage that is not subject to 
a minimum 3-year retention period, viewed by any 
superior officer of a uniformed officer whose body 
camera recorded the footage absent a specific allega-
tion of misconduct; or 
(2) subjected to facial recognition or any other 
form of automated analysis or analytics of any kind, 
unless— 
(A) a judicial warrant providing authoriza-
tion is obtained; 
(B) the judicial warrant specifies the pre-
cise video recording to which the authorization 
applies; and 
(C) the authorizing court finds there is 
probable cause to believe that the requested use 
of facial recognition is relevant to an ongoing 
criminal investigation. 
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(r) Video footage shall not be divulged or used by any 
law enforcement agency for any commercial or other non- 
law enforcement purpose. 
(s) Where a law enforcement agency authorizes a 
third party to act as its agent in maintaining body camera 
footage, the agent shall not be permitted to independently 
access, view, or alter any video footage, except to delete 
videos as required by law or agency retention policies. 
(t) If any uniformed officer, employee, or agent fails 
to adhere to the recording or retention requirements con-
tained in this Act, intentionally interfere with a body cam-
era’s ability to accurately capture video footage, or other-
wise manipulate the video footage captured by a body cam-
era during or after its operation— 
(1) appropriate disciplinary action shall be 
taken against the individual officer, employee, or 
agent; 
(2) a rebuttable evidentiary presumption shall 
be adopted in favor of criminal defendants who rea-
sonably assert that exculpatory evidence was de-
stroyed or not captured; and 
(3) a rebuttable evidentiary presumption shall 
be adopted on behalf of civil plaintiffs suing the gov-
ernment, a law enforcement agency and/or uni-
formed officers for damages based on police mis-
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conduct who reasonably assert that evidence sup-
porting their claim was destroyed or not captured. 
(u) The disciplinary action requirement and rebut-
table presumptions in subsection (s) may be overcome by 
contrary evidence or proof of exigent circumstances that 
made compliance impossible. 
(v) In the case that a law enforcement officer 
equipped with a body camera is involved in, a witness to, 
or within viewable sight range of either the use of force 
by another law enforcement officer that results in a death, 
the use of force by another law enforcement officer, during 
which the discharge of a firearm results in an injury, or 
the conduct of another law enforcement officer that be-
comes the subject of a criminal investigation— 
(1) the law enforcement agency that employs 
the law enforcement officer, or the agency or depart-
ment conducting the related criminal investigation, 
as appropriate, shall promptly take possession of the 
body camera, and shall maintain such camera, and 
any data on such camera, in accordance with the ap-
plicable rules governing the preservation of evidence; 
(2) a copy of the data on such body camera 
shall be made in accordance with prevailing forensic 
standards for data collection and reproduction; and 
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(3) such copied data shall be made available to 
the public in accordance with subsection (m). 
(w) Any body camera video footage recorded in con-
travention of this Act or any other applicable law may not 
be offered as evidence by any government entity, agency, 
department, prosecutorial office, or any other subdivision 
thereof in any criminal or civil action or proceeding 
against any member of the public. 
(x) Any law enforcement policy or other guidance re-
garding body cameras, their use, or the video footage 
therefrom that is adopted by a Federal agency or depart-
ment, shall be made publicly available on that agency’s 
website. 
(y) Nothing in this Act shall be read to contravene 
any laws governing the maintenance, production, and de-
struction of evidence in criminal investigations and pros-
ecutions. 
(z) As used in this Act: 
(1) The term ‘‘uniformed officer’’ means any 
person authorized by law to conduct searches and ef-
fectuate arrests, either with or without a warrant, 
and who is employed by the Federal Government. 
(2) The term ‘‘minor’’ means any person under 
18 years of age. 
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(3) The term ‘‘subject of the video footage’’ 
means any identifiable uniformed officer or any 
identifiable suspect, victim, detainee, conversant, in-
jured party, or other similarly situated person who 
appears on the body camera recording, and shall not 
include people who only incidentally appear on the 
recording. 
(4) The term ‘‘use of force’’ means any action 
by a uniformed officer that— 
(A) results in death, injury, complaint of 
injury, or complaint of pain that persists be-
yond the use of a physical control hold; 
(B) involves the use of a weapon, including 
a personal body weapon, chemical agent, impact 
weapon, extended range impact weapon, sonic 
weapon, sensory weapon, conducted energy de-
vice, or firearm, against a member of the pub-
lic; or 
(C) involves any intentional pointing of a 
firearm at a member of the public. 
(5) The term ‘‘video footage’’ means any im-
ages or audio recorded by a body camera. 
SEC. 3. PATROL VEHICLES WITH IN-CAR VIDEO RECORDING 
CAMERAS. 
(a) As used in this section: 
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(1) The term ‘‘audio recording’’ means the re-
corded conversation between an officer and a second 
party. 
(2) The term ‘‘emergency lights’’ means oscil-
lating, rotating, or flashing lights on patrol vehicles. 
(3) The term ‘‘in-car video camera’’ means a 
video camera located in a patrol vehicle. 
(4) The term ‘‘in-car video camera recording 
equipment’’ means a video camera recording system 
located in a patrol vehicle consisting of a camera as-
sembly, recording mechanism, and an in-car video 
recording medium. 
(5) The term ‘‘enforcement stop’’ means an ac-
tion by an officer in relation to enforcement and in-
vestigation duties, including traffic stops, pedestrian 
stops, abandoned vehicle contacts, motorist assists, 
commercial motor vehicle stops, roadside safety 
checks, requests for identification, or responses to 
requests for emergency assistance. 
(6) The term ‘‘recording’’ means the process of 
capturing data or information stored on a recording 
medium as required under this section. 
(7) The term ‘‘recording medium’’ means any 
recording medium for the retention and playback of 
recorded audio and video including VHS, DVD, hard 
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drive, solid state, digital, or flash memory tech-
nology. 
(8) The term ‘‘wireless microphone’’ means a 
device worn by the officer or any other equipment 
used to record conversations between the officer and 
a second party and transmitted to the recording 
equipment. 
(b) Each Federal law enforcement agency shall install 
in-car video camera recording equipment in all patrol vehi-
cles with a recording medium capable of recording for a 
period of 10 hours or more and capable of making audio 
recordings with the assistance of a wireless microphone. 
(c) In-car video camera recording equipment with a 
recording medium capable of recording for a period of 10 
hours or more shall record activities outside a patrol vehi-
cle whenever (i) an officer assigned a patrol vehicle is con-
ducting an enforcement stop; (ii) patrol vehicle emergency 
lights are activated or would otherwise be activated if not 
for the need to conceal the presence of law enforcement; 
or (iii) an officer reasonably believes recording may assist 
with prosecution, enhance safety, or for any other lawful 
purpose. In-car video camera recording equipment with a 
recording medium incapable of recording for a period of 
10 hours or more shall record activities inside the vehicle 
when transporting an arrestee or when an officer reason-
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ably believes recording may assist with prosecution, en-
hance safety, or for any other lawful purpose. 
(1) Recording for an enforcement stop shall 
begin when the officer determines an enforcement 
stop is necessary and shall continue until the en-
forcement action has been completed and the subject 
of the enforcement stop or the officer has left the 
scene. 
(2) Recording shall begin when patrol vehicle 
emergency lights are activated or when they would 
otherwise be activated if not for the need to conceal 
the presence of law enforcement, and shall continue 
until the reason for the activation ceases to exist, re-
gardless of whether the emergency lights are no 
longer activated. 
(3) An officer may begin recording if the officer 
reasonably believes recording may assist with pros-
ecution, enhance safety, or for any other lawful pur-
pose; and shall continue until the reason for record-
ing ceases to exist. 
(d) In-car video camera recording equipment with a 
recording medium capable of recording for a period of 10 
hours or more shall record activities whenever a patrol ve-
hicle is assigned to patrol duty. 
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(e) Any enforcement stop shall be video and audio 
recorded. Audio recording shall terminate upon release of 
the violator and prior to initiating a separate criminal in-
vestigation. 
(f) Recordings made on in-car video camera recording 
medium shall be retained for a storage period of at least 
90 days. Under no circumstances shall any recording 
made on in-car video camera recording medium be altered 
or erased prior to the expiration of the designated storage 
period. Upon completion of the storage period, the record-
ing medium may be erased and reissued for operational 
use unless otherwise ordered or if designated for evi-
dentiary or training purposes. 
(g) Audio or video recordings made pursuant to this 
section shall be available under the applicable provisions 
of section 552a of title 5, United States Code. Only re-
corded portions of the audio recording or video recording 
medium applicable to the request will be available for in-
spection or copying. 
(h) The agency shall ensure proper care and mainte-
nance of in-car video camera recording equipment and re-
cording medium. An officer operating a patrol vehicle 
must immediately document and notify the appropriate 
person of any technical difficulties, failures, or problems 
with the in-car video camera recording equipment or re-
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cording medium. Upon receiving notice, every reasonable 
effort shall be made to correct and repair any of the in- 
car video camera recording equipment or recording me-
dium and determine if it is in the public interest to permit 
the use of the patrol vehicle. 
SEC. 4. FACIAL RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY. 
No camera or recording device authorized or required 
to be used under this Act may employ facial recognition 
technology. 
SEC. 5. GAO STUDY. 
Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States 
shall conduct a study on Federal police officers’ training, 
vehicle pursuits, use of force, and interaction with citizens, 
and submit a report on such study to— 
(1) the Committees on the Judiciary of the 
House of Representatives and of the Senate; 
(2) the Committee on Oversight and Reform of 
the House of Representatives; and 
(3) the Committee on Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs of the Senate. 
SEC. 6. REGULATIONS. 
Not later than 6 months after the date of the enact-
ment of this Act, the Attorney General shall issue such 
final regulations as are necessary to carry out this Act. 
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SEC. 7. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 
Nothing in this Act shall be construed to impose any 
requirement on a uniformed officer outside of the course 
of carrying out that officer’s duty. 
Æ 
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