Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is considering adding Motorola as a provider of body camera technology for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, raising concerns among officials that the move could delay an agency-wide rollout that has already taken years to implement.
Every ICE field office has had enough Axon body cameras since late August to equip all employees who make arrests, according to a senior Trump administration official and a DHS official cited by NBC. Officers are currently being trained to use the devices.
Mullin, however, told reporters Tuesday that he was "pretty sure" every officer would be equipped by the end of September and said he was talking with Motorola about providing microphones for the cameras. Officials told NBC that the Axon cameras already distributed have microphones.
Switching providers or adding another one could require officers to train on two systems and jeopardize the 60-day rollout timeline DHS announced after two fatal ICE shootings in July, the officials said. A senior administration official familiar with Mullin's thinking said officers could ultimately be offered a choice between Axon and Motorola.
Motorola's body camera technology also lacks a federal cybersecurity certification held by Axon that is required to provide technology to federal law enforcement. Motorola has spent more than $1 million lobbying this year on issues that include DHS and appropriations legislation.
The latest uncertainty follows a years-long effort to expand ICE's use of body cameras. In February, officials told lawmakers that the agency had about 3,000 cameras for 13,000 officers, with some field offices lacking them entirely, according to NPR.
Pressure increased after ICE officers fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine in July. Neither the officers nor the targets were wearing body cameras, according to ICE, prompting lawmakers from both parties to call for cameras to be issued agency-wide.
By late August, ICE said it had acquired enough devices to equip officers and agents nationwide. The agency told NPR on September 1 that training remained underway.
"ICE has acquired devices to equip all ICE officers and agents nationwide with body cameras," an agency spokesperson reiterated to NBC. "Training required to equip individual officers remains ongoing and we expect to complete this training soon."
