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.

Covering the period from February 2025 until September this year, the report recommended that ICE implement additional controls to make sure that cameras are activated.

“We maintain that additional controls, such as automated camera activation, would provide greater assurance that body-worn cameras meet ICE’s desired results for transparency, accountability, and public trust,” the GAO said in the report.

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.

DHS also said in the report that inadvertent or false activations could result in the unauthorised recording of sensitive interactions with informants or victims, or the recording of bystanders engaged in free speech activities in areas where camera use is restricted.

ICE has been the face of president Donald Trump’s deportation drive, which he says aims to improve domestic security. Rights advocates say the crackdown has violated due ​process and free speech ​rights and created an ⁠unsafe environment, particularly for ethnic minorities, who have raised concerns about racial profiling.

Responding to the GAO report’s publication, a DHS spokesperson said on Wednesday ICE had acquired devices to equip all officers and agents with body cameras.

“Training required to equip individual officers remains ongoing and we expect to complete this training soon,” the spokesperson said.

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