DC Council advances body-camera program for city officers
WASHINGTON (AP) -- District of Columbia lawmakers have advanced a bill that would allow all 2,800 city patrol officers to be outfitted with body cameras.
The D.C. Council's judiciary committee voted Thursday to send the bill to the full council for a vote. The committee action follows months of debate about how the cameras should be used and public access to the recordings.
Mayor Muriel Bowser's administration proposed broad exemptions to the city's freedom-of-information law for the body-camera footage. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie and several other members opposed that plan. The compromise bill exempts footage taken in private homes and in cases of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking. Most other footage would be available to the public. Bowser's deputy mayor for public safety, Kevin Donahue, has said the administration will support the bill.