Officers with the San Antonio police wear them. So do Bexar County Sheriffs deputes. And, soon, federal immigration agents could be strapping on a body camera.
A pair of bills introduced in Congress would mandate ICE agents, Customs agents and Border Patrol agents wear a small device that would record their every move.
"We believe the federal government should make immigration enforcement as transparent as criminal law enforcement. Immigrants and their families are entitled to respect for their humanity and to the full rights guaranteed under the law," congressmen Yvette Clarke and Adriano Espaillat write in the New York Daily News.
The move comes as the political spotlight is focused on the men and women who enforce immigration laws. President Trump has used executive order to step up enforcement. That's led to claims by some immigrant rights groups that migrants are being abused, especially when many have limited English proficiency.San Antonio immigration attorney Lance Curtright would love to have the footage in court.
"Make sure that all the notices were given correctly, and if there was anything that went awry, then there would be a record of it, for a change," he tells Newsradio 1200 WOAI.
But the plan to outfit federal immigration agents with body cams is not sitting well with union that represents border patrol agents. Hector Garza with the NBPC in Laredo is not opposed to the cams, but they want the money spent on technology that would secure the border first. For example, radios that function along the border.
"There are areas along the border that our agents will not patrol. It’s dangerous because there are no communications in those areas. It's pretty much suicide."