Assistance program
Body Worn Camera Policy and Implementation
$157.5 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Office of Justice Programs, Justice, Department of
- Assistance
- Formula Grants;Cooperative Agreements;Project Grants;Use of Property, Facilities, and Equipment;Provision of Specialized Services;Advisory Services and Counseling;Dissemination of Technical Information;Training;Investigation of Complaints
- CFDA number
- 16.835
- What it does
- Goal: Funding under the program is intended to support law enforcement, prosecutorial, and correctional agencies seeking to establish, expand, or enhance comprehensive Body-Worn Camera (BWC) programs and have specified plans to implement this technology in a manner that maximizes the benefits of BWCs in that agency setting. Both individual and partnership applications are encouraged. Objectives: Promote officer and citizen safety through comprehensive and policy-driven BWC deployments that when properly implemented may help reduce incidents of use of force, reduce complaints against officers, and mitigate the lodging of false or unfounded complaints by citizens. Promote and strengthen relationships and strategies for the administration of justice within law enforcement agencies, and in coordination with courts, prosecutors, and public defender. Improve justice outcomes by providing sound and reliable digital media evidence for use by prosecutors, defense attorneys, and courts, as well as for internal law enforcement administrative proceedings. Performance Measure 1: Total number of agencies that have received funding to acquire BWCs Performance Measure 2: Total number of BWCs purchased per agency Performance Measure 3: Total number of agencies that have improved the management and utility of digital evidence generated by BWCs
- Who benefits
- Beneficiaries are the criminal justice agencies involved in a BWC program deployment and the communities involved.
- Who applies
- For site-based awards to support the purchase or lease of BWC, eligible agencies include law enforcement agencies, correctional agencies that perform law enforcement functions, prosecutors’ offices, and state or regional consortia that support such agencies, including state administrating agencies (SAAs). Eligibility is restricted to agencies that are publicly funded. State and regional consortia are eligible to apply, provided they are considered a public agency. “Public agency" means “any State, unit of local government, combination of such States or units, or any department, agency, or instrumentality of any of the foregoingâ€; as defined in 34 U.S.C. 10251(a)(6). For demonstration site applicants, applicants must fit the criteria as described above. In addition, the applicant should have an established BWC program that has been in operation for at least six months at the time of applying and document progress for the demonstration project category for which they are apply.
- Authorized by
- Public Law 118-42; Statute 138, p. 25, 147
- Program site
- http://www.bja.gov ↗
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
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- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
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Direct payments