Somebody needs to do something about federal cops running amok, and Don Beyer and Eleanor Holmes Norton are trying to be the somebody.
Beyer, who represents a Northern Virginia House district abutting DC, and Norton, the non-voting House member representing DC, will introduce legislation next month that will require federal police, including ICE agents, to wear body cameras and use dashboard cameras in marked vehicles.
Similar legislation passed the House in 2021, but got bogged down in the Senate, because that’s what the Senate is there for.
Fat chance this even gets out of committee in the MAGA-led House, but at least Beyer and Norton can get no votes from the MAGAs to highlight, yet again, the hypocrisy of the far, far, far right.
“Every day, Washingtonians are confronted with new outrages from Trump’s unwanted and unjustified occupation of D.C., including arrests using excessive force that put people in unnecessary danger. Many of these encounters have been captured on video taken by bystanders or journalists, and I cannot help but wonder what we are not seeing because it is not caught on video,” Beyer said.
“I have the same concern with ICE raids in Northern Virginia, which like the federal escalation in DC, are carried out by masked agents in unmarked vehicles who give no justification for their actions. The administration’s use of such draconian tactics is designed to stoke fear and intimidate law-abiding people who have done nothing wrong. These abuses of power cry out for transparency and accountability, and our bill would answer that need. Every one of these officers should be wearing a body camera.”
Norton and Beyer first introduced a bill to require body cams and dash cams for federal cops after U.S. Park Police officers shot and killed 25-year-old Bijan Ghaisar, who was unarmed, in 2017.
Ghaisar was fatally shot in his car by Park Police officers in Fairfax County after he fled a car crash and was pursued by officers down George Washington Parkway. Footage of the shooting was released by the Fairfax County Police Department, which captured it on a cruiser’s dashboard camera.
Without that footage, Ghaisar’s family and the public would have had no access to the circumstances surrounding Ghaisar’s death.
The District of Columbia and Fairfax County both require officers to wear body cameras and have dashboard cameras in marked vehicles.
“With a president in the White House abusing his power over federal law enforcement to compel local governments to enforce his cruel and inhumane policies, our country needs this bill. For DC, that need could not be more urgent. President Trump’s unjustified and inflammatory surge of federal law enforcement officers in the District has resulted in violent arrests using excessive force, but without body cameras, we’re left to rely on videos filmed by onlookers and public reporting to learn what happened,” Norton said.
“Federal officers in DC have recently been filmed using excessive force during arrests, refusing to identify the agency they belong to, and obscuring their own faces. Body and dashboard camera requirements would provide much-needed transparency and a chance at accountability for victims during this unprecedented time in the nation’s capital,” Norton said.
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Chris Graham
