Stop Body Camera Paywalls Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Stop Body Camera Paywalls Act ties federal law-enforcement grant eligibility to free public access to certain camera footage. A state or local government applying for funding under a covered program must certify that it, and any law enforcement agency receiving distributed funds, does not impose financial or monetary costs on any member of the public seeking to view, access, or obtain a copy of certain camera video footage recorded by a law enforcement officer, and does not impose other fees related to obtaining the footage, including court fees. Without the certification, the applicant is ineligible for covered funding. Covered programs include Byrne grant programs and the COPS grant program. Covered footage includes body-camera video, dash-camera video, jail, prison, or correctional facility surveillance footage, and other relevant law-enforcement agency footage.
Who Benefits and How
Members of the public requesting footage, families of people in police encounters, journalists, civil-rights attorneys, public defenders, watchdog groups, and communities seeking accountability benefit because agencies that want Byrne or COPS funds would have to remove monetary barriers to access. DOJ grant administrators benefit from a certification standard tied to existing grant applications.
Who Bears the Burden and How
State governments, local governments, police departments, sheriff offices, jail administrators, records offices, courts charging related fees, and DOJ grant applicants must eliminate covered footage fees or lose Byrne and COPS eligibility. Agencies may bear copying, redaction, storage, staff, and records-processing costs without passing monetary charges to requesters.
Key Provisions
- Requires Byrne and COPS grant applicants to certify that public access to covered camera footage is free of monetary costs.
- Bars funding to states or local governments that do not provide the certification.
- Covers body-camera footage, dash-camera footage, jail footage, prison footage, correctional surveillance footage, and other relevant law-enforcement footage.
- Prohibits related fees, including court fees, for viewing, accessing, or obtaining covered footage.
- Extends the certification to law enforcement agencies that receive funds distributed by the state or local applicant.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Makes Byrne and COPS grant funding unavailable to states, local governments, and funded law enforcement agencies unless they certify that the public can view, access, or obtain covered body-camera, dash-camera, jail, prison, correctional, or other law-enforcement footage free of monetary charges and related court fees.
Key Policy Areas
Law Enforcement, Government, Civil Rights
Primary Purpose
Makes Byrne and COPS grant funding unavailable to states, local governments, and funded law enforcement agencies unless they certify that the public can view, access, or obtain covered body-camera, dash-camera, jail, prison, correctional, or other law-enforcement footage free of monetary charges and related court fees.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Public footage requesters
- Families of people in police encounters
- Journalists
- Civil rights attorneys
- Public defenders
- Watchdog groups
Identified Costs
- State governments
- Local governments
- Police departments
- Sheriff offices
- Jail administrators
- Records offices
- DOJ grant applicants
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Introduced in House
Ms. Tlaib (for herself, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mr. …
Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR H697)
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology