US rejects recommendation for ICE body cams to be automatically activated

The Trump administration has rejected a government watchdog's recommendation that US immigration officials should use technology that would automatically activate body-worn cameras when an officer pulls their weapon or sets off a car siren.



Automatic activation of body-worn cameras was one of a number of recommendations outlined in a report released on Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent nonpartisan watchdog agency for Congress.



The recommendation comes as US agencies face mounting scrutiny over enforcement tactics used in an immigration crackdown that has included fatal shootings of two US citizens in Minneapolis, raising questions about officers' accountability.



The GAO report said US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and US Customs and Border Protection "should improve body-worn camera program management," adding that CBP and ICE have not updated their program plans since 2022 and 2024, respectively.



The Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE is a part, said in comments cited in the report that it did not agree with the recommendation, citing what it said were privacy and operational risks.



For ICE, automatic activation risked the possibility of inadvertent or false activations during routine movement, the DHS said in the report.