Murphy signs $58M law, last piece for NJ body cameras

By: Stacey Barchenger
Trenton Bureau
USA today Network - New Jersey

..... New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy on Wednesday [12/23/2020] signed into law a bill dedicating $58 million to buy uniformed police officers body cameras, the last of three laws that together create a statewide program aiming for transparency and accountability in policing.
..... New Jersey now begins the task of getting tens of thousands of officers cameras. fewer than half of the 537 law enforcement agencies across the state give some or all of their officers body cameras, according to a survey released by the New Jersey Attorney General's Office in September. [2020]
..... Advocates for the cameras say they provide crucial transparency and a record of police interactions that cannot be refuted, to the benefit of both law enforcement officers and civilians. Even New Jersey's powerful police unions signed on in support of the laws last month. [11/2020]
..... Lawmakers meant to send Murphy all three bills in November, [2020] including the funding bill Murphy ultimately signed on Wednesday. [12/23/2020]
..... But the funding bill was held up by last-minute changes, and Murphy signed two other bills anyway, facing a deadline for action because he had previously conditionally vetoed the bills.
..... Those two bills require the cameras to be used and set a framework for video storage and other rules.
..... Murphy had sent those two bills back to the legislature for changes, including finding a funding source for departments to buy cameras.
..... Laws that create requirements for local government but that do not include dedicated funding can be overturned by an obscure state council, as happened in 2016 after the Legislature tried tor require dashboard cameras for police cruisers.
..... With Murphy's signature on Wednesday, [12/23/2020] state leaders hope to avoid any such challenge that could prevent body cameras form being a standard part of police uniforms in the garden State.
..... New Jersey joins several other states that have required police officers to don the evidence-capturing cameras in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin this summer. [2020]
.... Both incidents sparked protests around the country with thousands of people marching to demand policing reform.

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