U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said the federal government should not mandate the use of body cameras for law enforcement agencies across the nation, but that Congress should strongly encourage their usage.
Scott re-emphasized Tuesday his support for law enforcement to wear body cameras, but said congressional legislators will have to come up with a funding formula to make sure the agencies that need body cameras have access to money to pay for them.
Scott became highly vocal in his support of body cameras after the string of deaths involving unarmed black men and white police officers, including the death of Walter Scott, a 50-year-old North Charleston black male who lived in Sen. Scott's district.
Walter Scott was killed on April 4 in a police shooting by North Charleston officer Michael Slager. An eyewitness caught the incident on video with his cellphone. Slager has since been fired and charged with murder.
During a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee meeting on Crime and Terrorism, Scott said a strong piece of the puzzle to create trust is body-worn cameras for police officers. Scott also addressed the fine line between federal assistance and mandates.
"Tasking the federal government to support body cams through resources should not be confused with federalizing local policing - which I would object to," Scott said.
Various organizations gave testimony on the issue, including representatives with a Colorado District Attorney office, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the South Carolina Sheriff's Association and the Police Executive Research Forum.
Lindsay Miller, a senior associate with the research forum, said a study conducted by her group concluded that with limited exceptions, officers should be required to activate their cameras when responding to all calls for service and during all law enforcement-related encounters and activities that occur while the officer is on duty.
"We recommend that officers should be required to obtain consent prior to recording interviews with crime victims, and that officers should have discretion to not record conversations with crime witnesses or members of the community who wish to discuss confidential information that might relate to criminal activity, but who are unwilling to speak on camera," Miller said.
Some concerns voiced on body camera laws include the cameras becoming the only piece of pertinent evidence, in addition to privacy issues for victims. Wade Henderson, the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said in some instances such as privacy, releases of video could be put on hold.
"However, in incidents involving police use of force, there should be access to that information as quickly as possible," Henderson said. "It should be shared broadly with the public."
Sen. Scott reaffirmed Henderson's stance, declaring, "If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a thousand pictures."
South Carolina's other senator, Republican Lindsey Graham, is the chairman of the committee and hinted that a grant system may be the most logical way for the federal government to help local agencies pay for the cameras. Graham's proposal received full support, with Henderson adding that developing criteria to receive a grant is "absolutely essential."
In South Carolina, the release of the Walter Scott video helped push legislation through House and Senate subcommittees - an action that has been endorsed by Sen. Scott.
In December, S.C. legislators pre-filed for Senate bill 0047 - a bill that requires every officer in the state to have access to a body camera. The Senate passed its version of the bill on April 29, and the House unanimously passed its version on May 13, after renaming it the Walter Scott Bill. The bill has since been in the Senate and will likely send it to a conference committee - a group that consists of members from both bodies in the General Assembly.
Funding mandates are also an issue tied up in the body cam legislation in the South Carolina General Assembly.
The Senate is planning to offer $3.4 million to buy 2,000 cameras and servers to store the cameras' data. Overall, buying cameras for about 12,000 law enforcement officers in the state would cost an estimated $30 million.
Derrek Asberry is the SRS beat reporter for the Aiken Standard and has been with the paper since June 2013. He is originally from Vidalia, Ga., and a graduate of Georgia Southern University. Follow him on Twitter @DerrekAsberry.