ICE establishes policy for body camera footage

Agency to release videos only when seen in its ‘best interests’

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is moving to equip officers with body cameras in the next two months but the agency's policy gives it broad control over what footage will be made public by specifying any releases must be in its "best interests."

After years of delays, ICE said its field officers nationwide will have body-worn cameras by the end of September. The rollout comes after recent fatal shootings by officers enforcing President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown have intensified pressure for accountability that the cameras could provide.

But the agency's body-worn camera policy could mean taxpayers who are pitching in tens of millions of dollars to pay for the cameras may be kept in the dark about some high-profile confrontations, at least in their immediate aftermath.

The policy says ICE will promptly release video of shootings and other encounters in which its agents cause death or serious injury only after determining "it is in the best interests of the agency" to do so. That gives its director discretion to release recordings that reflect well on the agency's image while working to keep others secret, experts on body camera policies said.

Such selective releases are routine in some law enforcement agencies but usually not so clearly contemplated in policy, according to professor Christopher Schneider of Brandon University in Canada, a co-author of the book "Police Body-Worn Cameras: Media and the New Discourse of Police Reform."

"In some ways, ICE is saying the quiet part out loud," he said. "Body-worn cameras are being used as contemporary image-work tools to present the police to the public in the most favorable way possible."

ICE's policy requires officers to activate cameras during routine enforcement activities, including while making arrests, executing search warrants and responding to emergencies.

After shootings or other serious confrontations, a committee that includes top ICE officials and lawyers will review footage and recommend whether to release it promptly, according to the policy issued in February 2025.

If the answer is yes, the recording could be released within 72 hours. But if ICE's director finds "specific and compelling circumstances" justify withholding the video, they have the authority to block or indefinitely delay the release, the policy says.

The policy does not elaborate on such circumstances, and ICE did not respond to a question from The Associated Press about how it would make such decisions.

Practices vary widely in the U.S. In Chicago, a police watchdog agency routinely releases video of shootings and other serious use-of-force incidents within 60 days. In Philadelphia, the police department very rarely uses its discretion to release video and has no policy for when to do so.

Even when footage is released, ICE's policy will require redacting all officers' identifying features such as faces, names and badge numbers to preserve their privacy.

Schneider, who has studied body cameras since their use began spreading a decade ago, said he does not expect ICE to release footage of fatal shootings like those last month.

He noted ICE's sister agency, Customs and Border Protection, has not released footage of the January shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis even though it was captured on agents' cameras. CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott told lawmakers in February that the video and other materials were under investigation and would be made public "when it's appropriate."

Katherine Hawkins, senior legal analyst at the nonprofit Project On Government Oversight, said that while it's better to have body-worn camera footage than not -- because courts could demand it for review -- ICE's policy makes such recordings "virtually useless."

"Without any clear way for the public to get access to it, it doesn't do much good," she said Friday. "It's not unheard of for agencies to delay or withhold or selectively edit footage at all, but to say that explicitly just really gives the game away."

ICE spent $30.9 million in July to purchase body camera equipment from Axon, the Arizona-based company that also manufactures Tasers, federal records show.

The spending began one day after the fatal shooting of a 25-year-old motorist in Maine by an ICE officer with a history of violent behavior. Days earlier, another ICE officer shot and killed a Houston homebuilder driving to work.