BREAKING: ICE Director slaps DOWN fake news by AP over new body-worn cameras

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is finally fully implementing body-worn cameras on officers by the end of September, but the Associated Press is falsely characterizing their policy on allowing the release of the footage to the public as being in their own best interest:

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.”

This characterization is completely false, as the Acting ICE Director explains below. He points out that the ‘best interest’ noted in the policy has to do with protecting the intergrity of investigations to ensure they aren’t compromised, and not about keeping embarassing footage secret.

Here’s what he told Bill Melugin:

NEW: In a statement to @FoxNews, ICE is pushing back on AP’s characterization of their new bodyworn camera policy as only releasing the video when it is in ICE’s “best interest” to do so:

Statement via Acting ICE Director Dave Venturella:

“It’s disappointing, though not surprising, to see yet another misleading and sensationalized Associated Press report about ICE operations and policy. The AP fundamentally mischaracterized ICE’s body-worn camera policy by conflating the expedited release of footage following a serious bodily injury or death in custody with ICE’s broader authority to release body-worn camera footage. Those are distinct issues, and here is the truth:

ICE policy permits expedited release when appropriate — and clarifies that it’s not appropriate to release footage when doing so could compromise investigations or privacy. This approach mirrors other federal law enforcement agencies’ policies and is fully consistent with the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act. At the same time, we’re committed to transparency and accountability, and we’re on track to equip every officer and agent in the field with body-worn cameras by the end of August, ahead of our original timeline.”

I used AP sometimes when I’m looking for stories and if they are just reporting facts, I like their reporting. But when they get into this kind of leftist-style editorializing, to make it look like just-factual-reporting when it is not, that’s why their anti-Trump bias really surfaces.

https://therightscoop.com/breaking-ice-director-slaps-down-fake-news-by-ap-over-new-body-worn-cameras/