Bill Text: NJ A5039 | 2020-2021 | Regular Session | Introduced


Bill Title: Requires correctional police officers to wear body worn cameras.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2021-06-24 - Referred to Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee [A5039 Detail]

Download: New_Jersey-2020-A5039-Introduced.html

ASSEMBLY, No. 5039

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

219th LEGISLATURE

 

INTRODUCED NOVEMBER 19, 2020

 


 

Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman  YVONNE LOPEZ

District 19 (Middlesex)

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Requires correctional police officers to wear body worn cameras.

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     As introduced.

  


An Act concerning correctional police officers and body worn cameras and supplementing Title 30 of the Revised Statutes.

 

     Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

     1.    The Commissioner of Corrections shall require all correctional police officers in every correctional facility in this State to wear a body worn camera while the officer is acting in the performance of the officer's duties. 

 

     2.    This act shall take effect on the first day of the seventh month next following enactment. 

 

 

STATEMENT

 

     This bill requires all correctional police officers employed in a correctional facility in this State to wear a body worn camera (BWC) while the officer is acting in the performance of the officer's duties. 

     According to the sponsor, it is beneficial to both the correctional police officers and the inmates when officers utilize body worn cameras (BWCs) in the violent, high stress environment of a correctional facility. The use of BWCs results in deescalating potentially violent situations, dissuades inmates from assaulting officers due to the threat of prosecution based on BWC video, reduces the need for staff use of force, filters allegations from prisoners, and provides reliable evidence in legitimate cases. 

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