I 
113TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5865 
To establish a grant program providing for the acquisition, operation, and 
maintenance of body-worn cameras for law enforcement officers. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 11, 2014 
Mr. CLEAVER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Armed 
Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To establish a grant program providing for the acquisition, 
operation, and maintenance of body-worn cameras for 
law enforcement officers. 
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 ‘‘Camera Authorization 
and Maintenance Act of 2014’’ or as the ‘‘CAM Act of 
2014’’. 
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SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT TO USE BODY-WORN CAMERA SYS-
TEMS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Beginning on the date that is 180 
days after the date of enactment, if, in a fiscal year, a 
State or unit of local government that receives any grant 
from the Attorney General does not require law enforce-
ment officers of that State or unit of local government 
to use body-worn cameras, that State or unit of local gov-
ernment may not receive any grant from the Attorney 
General in the following fiscal year. 
(b) HARDSHIP WAIVER.—The Attorney General may 
waive the application of subsection (a) to any State or unit 
of local government that applies for such a waiver if, in 
the determination of the Attorney General, compliance 
with the requirement of subsection (a) would pose a finan-
cial hardship on the State or unit of local government. 
(c) DEFINITIONS.—Terms used in this section have 
the meaning given such terms in section 901 of title I of 
the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 
(42 U.S.C. 3791). 
SEC. 3. BODY-WORN CAMERA GRANTS. 
Title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe 
Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3711 et seq.) is amended 
by adding at the end the following: 
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‘‘PART MM—BODY-WORN CAMERA GRANTS 
‘‘SEC. 3031. IN GENERAL. 
‘‘From amounts made available to carry out this part, 
the Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance may 
make grants to States, units of local government, and In-
dian tribes for the acquisition, operation, and maintenance 
of body-worn cameras for law enforcement officers. 
‘‘SEC. 3032. USES OF FUNDS. 
‘‘Grants awarded under this section shall be— 
‘‘(1) distributed directly to the State, unit of 
local government, or Indian tribe; and 
‘‘(2) used for the program described under sec-
tion 3034. 
‘‘SEC. 3033. PROGRAM DESCRIBED. 
‘‘The program described in this section is any pro-
gram implemented by a grantee requiring the use of body- 
worn cameras by law enforcement officers in that jurisdic-
tion, consistent with the following requirements: 
‘‘(1) Any law enforcement officer who has reg-
ular contact with the general public shall be required 
to wear and, as appropriate, activate a body-worn 
camera. 
‘‘(2) An officer who is not otherwise assigned 
body-worn cameras may be required to wear one in 
certain circumstances, including the following: 
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‘‘(A) After receiving a specified number of 
complaints or disciplinary actions. 
‘‘(B) When participating in a certain type 
of activity, such as SWAT operations. 
‘‘(3) Body cameras should be worn on the offi-
cer’s chest or at eye level. 
‘‘(4) An officer who activates the body-worn 
camera while on duty should be required to note the 
existence of the recording in the official incident re-
port. 
‘‘(5) An officer who wears body-worn cameras 
should be required to articulate their reasoning, on 
camera or in writing, if that officer fails to record 
an activity that is required by department policy to 
be recorded. 
‘‘(6) An officer is required to activate his or her 
body-worn camera when responding to all calls for 
service and during all law enforcement-related en-
counters and activities that occur while the officer is 
on duty traffic stops, arrests, searches, interroga-
tions, investigations, and pursuits. 
‘‘(7) Officers should also be required to activate 
the camera during the course of any encounter with 
the public that becomes adversarial after the initial 
contact. 
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‘‘(8) An officer shall inform any person who is 
being recorded by a body-worn camera when the per-
son is being recorded unless doing so would be un-
safe, impractical, or impossible. 
‘‘(9) Once activated, the body-worn camera 
shall remain in recording mode until the conclusion 
of an incident or encounter, the officer has left the 
scene, or a supervisor has authorized (on camera) 
that a recording may cease. 
‘‘(10) Policies shall designate the officer as the 
person responsible for downloading recorded data 
from his or her body-worn camera. However, in cer-
tain clearly identified circumstances (including offi-
cer-involved shootings, in-custody deaths, or other 
incidents involving the officer that result in a per-
son’s bodily harm or death), the officer’s supervisor 
should immediately take physical custody of the 
camera and should be responsible for downloading 
the data. 
‘‘(11) If the camera system does not have a sys-
tem to track who accesses the recorded data, when, 
and for what purpose, grantees shall create an audit 
system that monitors who accesses recorded data, 
when, and for what purpose. Grantees may conduct 
forensic reviews to determine whether recorded data 
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has been tampered with. Data shall be downloaded 
from the body-worn camera by the end of each shift 
in which the camera was used. Officers shall prop-
erly categorize and tag body-worn camera videos at 
the time they are downloaded. Videos shall be classi-
fied according to the type of event or incident cap-
tured in the footage. 
‘‘(12) When setting time frames for retention of 
data, grantees shall consider the following: 
‘‘(A) State laws governing evidence reten-
tion. 
‘‘(B) Departmental policies governing re-
tention of other types of electronic records. 
‘‘(C) The openness of the State’s public 
disclosure laws. 
‘‘(D) The need to preserve footage to pro-
mote transparency. 
‘‘(E) The length of time typically needed to 
receive and investigate citizen complaints. 
‘‘(F) The agency’s capacity for data stor-
age. 
‘‘(13) Data must be managed by a third party. 
To protect the security and integrity of data man-
aged by a third party, a grantee shall use a rep-
utable, experienced vendor, enter into a legal con-
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tract with the vendor that protects the agency’s 
data, ensure the system includes a built-in audit 
trail and reliable backup methods, and consult with 
legal advisors. 
‘‘(14) An officer shall be permitted to review 
video footage of an incident in which they were in-
volved, prior to making a statement about the inci-
dent. 
‘‘(15) A grantee’s internal audit unit, rather 
than the officer’s direct chain of command, should 
periodically conduct a random review of body-worn 
camera footage to monitor compliance with the pro-
gram and assess overall officer performance. 
‘‘(16) Grantee policies pertaining to body-worn 
cameras shall include specific measures for pre-
venting unauthorized access or release of recorded 
data. 
‘‘(17) Grantees shall have clear and consistent 
protocols for releasing recorded data externally to 
the public and the news media (or public disclosure 
policies). Each such policy must be in compliance 
with any applicable State or Federal public disclo-
sure laws. 
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‘‘(18) Body-worn camera training shall be re-
quired for all grantee personnel who may use or oth-
erwise be involved with body-worn cameras. 
‘‘(19) The grantee shall collect statistical data 
concerning body-worn camera usage, including when 
video footage is used in criminal prosecutions and 
internal affairs matters as well as when excessive 
force has been used. 
‘‘(20) The grantee shall conduct periodic re-
views of policies and protocols of the grantee per-
taining to body-worn cameras. 
‘‘SEC. 3034. ALLOCATION OF FUNDS. 
‘‘Funds available under this part shall be awarded to 
each qualifying unit of local government with fewer than 
100,000 residents. Any remaining funds available under 
this part shall be awarded to other qualifying applicants 
on a pro rata basis. 
‘‘SEC. 3035. MATCHING REQUIREMENTS. 
‘‘(a) FEDERAL SHARE.—The portion of the costs of 
a program provided by a grant under subsection (a) may 
not exceed 50 percent. Any funds appropriated by Con-
gress for the activities of any agency of an Indian tribal 
government or the Bureau of Indian Affairs performing 
law enforcement functions on any Indian lands may be 
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used to provide the non-Federal share of a matching re-
quirement funded under this subsection. 
‘‘(b) NON-FEDERAL SHARE.—The non-Federal share 
of payments made under this part may be made in cash 
or in-kind fairly evaluated, including planned equipment 
or services.’’. 
SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF TASK FORCE ON COMMUNITY 
POLICING AND BODY CAMERA ACCOUNT-
ABILITY. 
There shall be established in the Department of Jus-
tice a task force to do the following: 
(1) The task force shall be created to provide 
recommendations on community policing, including 
best practices from communities where law enforce-
ment and neighborhoods work well together to create 
accountability and transparency. 
(2) This task force shall provide a report to the 
Congress by April 2015 the recommendations above. 
(3) Membership shall include representatives of 
civil rights organizations, Federal, State, and local 
law enforcement personnel, and community policing 
experts. 
(4) The task force shall develop proper body- 
worn camera training protocol. 
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(5) The task force shall study the impact that 
citizen review boards could have on investigating 
cases of alleged police misconduct. 
(6) Not later than 1 year after implementation 
of the body camera requirement policy under section 
3033 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control Act of 
1968, the task force shall conduct a survey to deter-
mine best practices and effectiveness of the policy 
with findings to be reported back to the Congress. 
SEC. 5. GAO REPORT ON PENTAGON’S 1033 PROGRAM. 
Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States 
shall submit to the Congress a report on the Department 
of Defense Excess Personal Property Program established 
pursuant to section 1033 of Public Law 104–201, the 
‘‘National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 
1997’’ that includes information on— 
(1) which jurisdictions equipment is sent to; 
(2) the value of equipment sent to each jurisdic-
tion; 
(3) the level of training provided to officers; 
and 
(4) how the equipment is used in the jurisdic-
tion. 
Æ 
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