U.S. Department of Justice: Body-Worn Camera Policy and Implementation Program

The Body-Worn Camera Policy and Implementation Program law enforcement agencies seeking to pilot, establish, or enhance body-worn camera (BWC) policy and implementation programs. The BWC Policy and Implementation Program (PIP) will support law enforcement agencies, or any department, agency, or instrumentality of the foregoing that performs criminal justice functions, to develop comprehensive, evidence-based, and problem-solving approaches that incorporate BWCs into their law enforcement practices. The implementation may take the form of a pilot program of limited scope, a first-time program, or an enhancement of an existing BWC program. Regardless of the program type and size, proposed BWC programs are expected to include the following objectives:

• Implement a new or enhance an existing BWC program following the development of a planned and phased approach that first achieves broad stakeholder, local political leadership, and community engagement, and then leverages partnership input to address policy, training, deployment, and procurement requirements
• Implement operational procedures and tracking mechanisms that address the use, review, access, storage, retention, redaction, and expungement of digital voice and audio evidence
• Demonstrate commitment to leveraging the evidentiary value of BWCs and digital multimedia evidence (DME) into daily administrative and field operations in a manner that promotes improvements of criminal justice outcomes
• Train officers, administrators, and associated agencies requiring access to DME
• Implement appropriate policies that address BWC privacy matters that involve, at a minimum, legal liabilities concerning the release of information on civil rights, victims’ rights, domestic violence, and juveniles

Funding categories include:

• Category 1: Implementation or expansion of BWC programs through state or regional consortia. This category seeks to leverage economies of scale and enables component agencies to leverage partnerships, collaboration, and joint-acquisition strategies to establish new or expand existing BWC programs. Eligible applicants may include state agencies (e.g., state police, State Administering Agencies), regional law enforcement authorities, or major city or county agencies, acting on behalf of a joint partnership or consortia. A listing of State Administrating Agencies recognized by OJP can be found at https://ojp.gov/saa/.
• Category 2: Implementation or expansion of BWC programs for mid-sized agencies. This category seeks to establish new or expand existing BWC programs in mid-sized law enforcement agencies with more than 50 sworn officers and up to 250 sworn officers.
• Category 3: Implementation or expansion of BWC programs for large agencies. This category seeks to establish new or expand existing BWC programs in large police agencies with more than 250 and up to 1,000 sworn officers.
• Category 4: Implementation or expansion of BWC programs for extra-large agencies. This category seeks to establish new or expand existing BWC programs in extra-large police agencies with more than 1,000 sworn officers.

Amount: A total of $20,000,000 is available to make awards for a 36-month period of performance, as follows:

• Category 1: A total of $7,000,000 is available to make 5 awards that range from $200,000-$1,400,000.
• Category 2: A total of $4,000,000 is available to make 12 awards that range up to $400,000.
• Category 3: A total of $6,000,000 is available to make 8 awards range up to $600,000.
• Category 4: A total of $3,000,000 is available to make 3 awards range up to $1,000,000.

Applicants must provide a cost share of 50%, as a non-federal portion of total project costs.

Eligibility: Public agencies of state government, units of local government, and federally recognized Indian tribal governments that perform law enforcement functions (as determined by the Secretary of the Interior), or any department, agency, or instrumentality of the foregoing that performs criminal justice functions (including combinations of the preceding entities).

Link: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=304522

This post was filed under: