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Baltimore Council Approves Police Body Camera Bill

The legislation, which was approved 12-1, still needs a final vote from the council to move to the desk of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who said she will veto the measure, which she criticized as a hasty piece of bad legislation.

November 11, 2014
1 min to read


The Baltimore City Council overwhelmingly voted Monday to require all of Baltimore's nearly 3,000 police officers to wear body cameras — despite arguments from the mayor's office that the council's bill is illegal and ill-considered.

City Councilman Warren Branch, the lead sponsor of the two-page bill, said residents of his district repeatedly asked him to have police wear the cameras to cut down on brutality.

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The proposal would permit the Police Department to phase in use of the body cameras during the first year, the Baltimore Sun reports.

The legislation, which was approved 12-1, still needs a final vote from the council to move to the desk of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who said she will veto the measure, which she criticized as a hasty piece of bad legislation.

"If I'm an officer working in the evidence control room, I need to wear a body camera?" Rawlings-Blake said. "They were so eager to get something done, they didn't get it done right."

In a letter Monday, the mayor asked council members to hold off on the legislation until a task force she appointed can work through concerns about the program's cost and privacy issues for residents. She said she supports body cameras but objects to the council's bill.

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