The Brief

As AI expands into every facet of society, a California company is testing whether the technology can help improve the health of people living on the streets.

Akido Labs, a Los Angeles-based health care technology company that runs clinics and street medicine teams in California, plans to start using its AI model on homeless and housing insecure patients in the Bay Area next month. The program generates questions for outreach workers to ask patients and then suggests diagnoses, medical tests and even medication, which a human doctor then signs off on remotely. The idea is to save doctors time and allow them to see more patients.

The new model, called Scope AI, is addressing a very real problem: There aren’t nearly enough doctors visiting encampments and shelters. At the same time, homeless Californians are in much poorer health and are dying earlier than the general population.

“There are individuals who haven’t seen doctors for years. There are individuals who haven’t seen a dentist ever,” said Steve Good, president and CEO of Five Keys, which is partnering with Akido to launch the AI technology in its San Francisco homeless shelters. “There just aren’t enough resources to go in there and find out the needs these individuals have.”

Experts who research AI told CalMatters that if done right, the technology has the power to increase access to care for homeless and other marginalized communities. But while many health care providers already are using AI for administrative duties, such as transcribing patient visits, using it to help diagnose people is still a relatively new field. It brings up concerns around data privacy, biases and patient outcomes, which are particularly pressing when the technology is being used on homeless patients and other vulnerable groups.

“We don’t have perfect solutions to a lot of these challenges yet,” said Angel Hsing-Chi Hwang, an assistant professor at USC who researches human-AI interaction.

How Scope uses AI to diagnose homeless patients

Scope AI essentially allows non-medically trained outreach workers to start the intake and diagnosis process before a patient sees a doctor.

An outreach worker goes out into the field with Scope on their tablet or laptop. As they start interviewing a patient, Scope suggests questions the outreach worker should ask. Scope listens to, records and transcribes the interview, and as the interaction progresses, it suggests new questions based on what the patient says.

When it has enough information, Scope suggests diagnoses, prescriptions and follow-up tests. That information is then sent to a human doctor, who reviews it (usually the same day) and either signs off on the prescriptions, makes changes, or, if it’s a more complex case, arranges to see the patient to get additional information. The medical care is paid for by Medi-Cal through its CalAIM expansion into social services.

Dr. Rishi Patel from the Akido street medicine team checks on an unhoused man living in a vineyard in Arvin on May 28, 2024. Street medicine teams throughout California are increasingly using long-acting injectable antipsychotic medication to stabilize the mental health of people living in homeless encampments.

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Dr. Rishi Patel from the Akido street medicine team checks on an unhoused man living in a vineyard in Arvin on May 28, 2024. Street medicine teams throughout California are increasingly using long-acting injectable antipsychotic medication to stabilize the mental health of people living in homeless encampments. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local In demonstrating the technology to CalMatters, using an imaginary 56-year-old female patient who complained of trouble breathing, Scope asked several follow-up questions to drill down on her symptoms. Then, it made suggestions that included: a diagnosis of COPD or chronic bronchitis, a chest x-ray and spirometry breathing test, and a prescription of an albuterol inhaler.

The Scope AI technology is already being used in a few target areas. Akido’s street medicine teams began using it in homeless encampments in Los Angeles County in 2023, where it has since seen more than 5,000 patients. Akido also uses AI in encampments in Kern County, clinics in California and Rhode Island, and to treat ride-share workers in New York.

Scope lands on the correct diagnoses within its top three suggestions 99% of the time, according to Akido.

Other studies have called into question the reliability of diagnoses made by artificial intelligence. A 2024 study, for example, found that AI was significantly more likely to misdiagnose breast cancer in Black women than in white women.

The infiltration of AI into homeless services has sparked concern from some critics who argue homeless patients, because of their increased vulnerability, need a human health care provider.

“We should not experiment on patients who are unhoused or have low incomes for an AI rollout,” Leah Goodridge, a tenants rights attorney and housing policy expert, and Dr. Oni Blackstock, a physician and executive director of Health Justice, wrote in a recent opinion piece for the Guardian.

Brett Feldman, director of USC Street Medicine, agrees. When someone is homeless, much of their health status is dependent on their living environment, he told CalMatters. For example, he recently treated a patient with scabies. Typically, he would prescribe a shampoo or body wash, but this patient had no access to a shower — a key detail that AI might not know to ask.

Instead, he prescribed an oral medication. The patient needed one dose right away, and another dose in a week. He had to decide whether to give the patient the second dose now and trust that it wouldn’t get lost or stolen, ask the patient to travel to a pharmacy to pick up the second dose, or try to find the patient again in a week to deliver the dose. AI couldn’t make that complex calculation, and neither could a doctor who hadn’t met the patient and seen their living situation, Feldman said.

And any missteps the AI makes could have outsized consequences when a patient is homeless, Feldman said. If the patient has an issue with the medication prescribed, they likely don’t have an easy way to contact the doctor or have a follow-up appointment.

“I would say, in general, that this would not work for this population,” Feldman said.

Akido argues the benefit of AI is clear: better efficiency and improved access to health care.

Before introducing AI, each of Akido’s street medicine doctors in LA and Kern counties could carry a case load of about 200 homeless patients at a time, said Karthik Murali, head of safety net programs for the company. Now, it’s closer to 350 patients per doctor, he said, because doctors spend less time asking routine questions and filling out paperwork.

That means more patients get access to care and medication more quickly, Murali said.

Nearly a quarter of homeless Californians surveyed by the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative reported needing medical care that they couldn’t get in the six months prior to the study. Only 39% said they had a primary care provider. Nearly half of homeless Californians surveyed reported their health as poor or fair — a rate about four times higher than the general U.S. population.

Good, of Five Keys, hopes the technology also will let clinicians build trust and deeper relationships with their clients. An outreach worker using Scope will have time to form a bond with the patient and better respond to their individual needs, as opposed to a doctor who is rushing through the visit to get to the next patient, he said.

His organization hopes to roll out the technology in some of its San Francisco homeless shelters next month.

Partnerships and access

Akido also plans to work with Reimagine Freedom and the Young Women’s Freedom Center to use the AI technology at four centers — in San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond and San Jose — that serve women and girls who are or have been incarcerated. The clients they serve often had poor access to health care while in jail or prison, or had their medical concerns ignored, said Reimagine Freedom President Jessica Nowlan. Many have no trust in the medical system.

Currently, the centers offer health education. This new AI technology will allow them to provide actual medical care, Nowlan said.

“Our guess is we will see a huge increase in women being able to access health and care for themselves,” she said.

Reimagine Freedom started testing Scope AI at its Los Angeles clinic in November. So far, “it’s going really well,” Nowlan said.

Akido plans to partner with additional homeless service providers who can help it roll out its AI technology in more places throughout the Bay Area. That partnership is being spearheaded by the Future Communities Institute, which is also developing metrics to judge the effectiveness of Akido's program.

If providers who serve vulnerable patients are left out of the AI race, any benefits in the technology will go to wealthy communities instead — further widening the gap between the haves and have-nots, said Stella Tran, who researches AI companies for a California Health Care Foundation investment fund. That’s why social service providers need to be involved in testing this technology and developing the ground rules and safety checks, she said.

But that doesn’t mean Tran doesn’t have concerns. For example, AI works differently on different communities. An algorithm that produced accurate diagnoses for patients in Los Angeles might not work as well in the Bay Area, she said. And while AI has the potential to be less racially biased than human doctors, it all depends on how the algorithm is constructed.

“I think there is a potential to increase access if we do it right,” Tran said, “with the right set of guardrails and being thoughtful about safety, transparency to patients, consent, all of that.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss said she will make the news division "fit for purpose in the 21st Century" at an all-staff meeting Tuesday, in which she outlined her strategy.

Weiss announced the hiring of 18 paid commentators — on subjects ranging from national security to health and wellness — as part of an effort to "widen the aperture of the stories we tell and the voices we listen to." They include HR McMaster, who served as national security advisor during the first Trump administration; Reihan Salam, the president of the conservative Manhattan Institute; and the historian Niall Ferguson.

She also cited several new hires who are going to produce original reports from Kyiv, London and New York City with a social media-first approach. And she said she only wants top-flight performers committed to her approach to stick around.

Weiss is expected to make significant cuts to the newsroom, though she did not address them in her remarks.

Weiss has expressed exuberance about the task she confronts at CBS, ranked third behind NBC and ABC, and an eagerness to learn about broadcast news. She has said she wants to appeal to independently minded Americans. And she says the news division has not — until now —addressed the fundamental reasons that she believes it is losing audience: a sharp drop in public trust in the mainstream media and a huge spike in competition for viewers' attention.

"We all must focus first on what we're building, not what we're maintaining. On how we are going to reach an audience exponentially bigger than the one we have now," Weiss said, according to prepared remarks shared by the network with NPR and other outlets. She said that she would do that by "marrying the journalistic principles that will never change — seeking the truth, serving the public, and ferociously guarding our independence — with the tools that constantly are." (The network said Weiss hewed closely to her prepared text.)

"We can still do what the Wild West of social media cannot," she said.

First months marked by controversy

In her brief tenure, Weiss has alienated much of the staff of 60 Minutes, the crown jewel of the news division; sought to reinvent the CBS Evening News; and questioned whether CBS journalists have been fair or worthy of Americans' trust in the past.

This story also draws on interviews with eight current and former CBS News journalists. All of those still at the network spoke on condition they not be named, citing professional repercussions. Several noted that Weiss has told staffers she welcomes internal debate but cannot abide public dissent.

While Weiss has been welcomed by some CBS journalists, including Chief Legal Correspondent Jan Crawford, others have taken issue with her style of leadership and the editorial choices that have followed her arrival.

In addition, liberal critics outside the network have blasted her, alleging that she is doing the handiwork of the networks' owners, who are allies of President Trump and are seeking his blessing in their bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. Weiss has rejected that assertion, though she declined to comment for this story through a spokesperson.

Weiss brought in to reshape CBS News

A former conservative opinion writer and editor for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, Weiss was hired last fall by Paramount's new controlling owner, David Ellison, to shake up CBS's news division as it came under renewed attack from the Trump administration.

The previous owners of Paramount had paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump as a private individual over the editing of a fall 2024 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris. That helped clear the way for approval from Trump's chief broadcast regulator, who additionally secured promises from Ellison of an ombudsman to field complaints of ideological bias.

Paramount also acquired Weiss's center-right digital startup, The Free Press, for $150 million. The Substack views-and-news site has approximately 170,000 paying subscribers and is built on the proposition that most of the mainstream media is reflexively liberal, though it does sometimes offer coverage that is critical of Trump.

She has been personally involved in remapping the CBS Evening News.

Ahead of his debut as the new anchor of the Evening News, CBS's Tony Dokoupil said the press has too often missed the story.

"Because we've taken into account the perspective of advocates and not the average American. Or we put too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites and not enough on you," he wrote in an online post on Jan. 1. "At certain points, I have been you. I have felt this way too. I have felt like what I was seeing and hearing on the news didn't reflect what I was seeing and hearing in my own life."

On Instagram, Dokoupil wrote in response to a critic: "I can promise you we'll be more accountable and more transparent than Cronkite or any one else of his era."

His comment was taken as an affront by some of his colleagues, according to four people at the network's news division. Walter Cronkite, the iconic CBS anchor who narrated the death of President John F. Kennedy, humanity's ascent to the Moon, and the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon for tens of millions of Americans, embodied the definition of the TV news anchor for the modern era.

The internal tensions erupted into public view in December. Less than two days before broadcast, Weiss decided to hold a 60 Minutes story on the alleged abuse of immigrants sent to an El Salvador detention center where the Trump administration sent hundreds of Venezuelan migrants last March.

She said the segment wasn't ready, though it had been reviewed and approved by CBS News lawyers and video excerpts had been released publicly to promote the segment. Weiss later said she would not be rushed into approving it for air.

The incident became public and sparked an enormous outcry. Yet, when the story aired this month, it had not changed appreciably. (The initial version was available from a Canadian distributor that had mistakenly already loaded it for streaming subscribers.)

The story ended up running almost exactly as it had been prepared, with an extra element documenting the written comments of Trump administration officials and CBS's efforts to get them to come on camera for an interview.

According to someone who attended Tuesday's meeting, Weiss conceded making a mistake on the 60 Minutes story, saying she had not understood how the timing of her decision would throw the show into disarray. Yet she did not back down from the merits of her decision, which she grounded in the desire to get a Trump administration official to speak about the matter on camera.

Initial CBS Evening News coverage choices prove divisive

Less well known are some of the incidents involving the Evening News that inspired internal discomfort.

Weiss and top producers had drawn up plan to fly Dokoupil around the country to underscore his desire to talk to Americans outside elite circles in New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.

Yet since Dokoupil's debut in early January, CBS has taken an Evening News segment off the air called "Eye On America," on since 2024, that had been doing just that.

On the first night, executives pulled Dokoupil back to New York City to cover the U.S. seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The second night was Jan. 6 and Dokoupil was in Miami. Major news organizations, including NPR and the New York Times, offered new projects about what had been learned in the five years since the siege of the U.S. Capitol.

Dokoupil offered this scant reference: "President Trump today accused Democrats of failing to prevent the attack on the Capitol, while House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused the president of 'whitewashing' it." The he-said, he-said formulation lasted about 15 seconds.

That prompted denunciations from outside critics. Sarah Longwell, the founder and publisher of the center-right, anti-Trump publication The Bulwark, wrote on X: "Trump is getting exactly what his rich buddy paid for."

Ellison's takeover of Paramount was financed by his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. The elder Ellison is a Trump adviser who encouraged his efforts to contest the 2020 race.

CBS Justice Correspondent Scott MacFarlane took great exception to Dokoupil's Jan. 6 broadcast, according to two people inside the network who spoke on condition they not be named.

MacFarlane has spent the past five years covering the attack on the U.S. Congress, drawing upon evidence presented in court to document the effort to deny the formal certification of President Joe Biden's win in the 2020 race.

He did not appear on the air on CBS News this Jan. 6. Instead, as he posted on the social media platform X, MacFarlane appeared on the BBC. It lasted nearly four-and-a-half-minutes.

"Here's my deep dive on the 5-year mark of Jan 6," MacFarlane wrote. "The ongoing impact on victims, the lies... and the continued malignant corrosion of democracy[.] As aired on.... The BBC."

At the tail of that night's broadcast from Miami, Dokoupil hailed Secretary of State Marco Rubio as a prominent Floridian in a flippant segment at the end. The anchor noted his key role in the administration — including on Venezuela — and shared AI-generated social media memes envisioning Rubio in a variety of roles, including as a hunter, the Michelin Man, and the leader of Greenland.

"Marco Rubio, we salute you," Dokoupil deadpanned. The light-hearted approach to the minute-long segment so close to the Venezuelan military action delighted the Trump White House and stirred backlash from journalists.

A White House threat over Trump interview

Weiss has personally gotten involved to secure major interviews in her drive for the network to make and break news.

Dokoupil landed several big-name interviews including with Trump and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth. The Independent reported Hegseth said he only did the interview because Weiss asked. The New York Times posted audio showing that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt threatened to sue CBS at the end of the interview with Trump if it was not run in full, unedited. Dokoupil said it would.

In a statement, CBS News said the network had already made "the independent decision to air it unedited and in its entirety."

Several current and former CBS journalists pointed to another instance that appeared to pull a punch that could land hard on the Trump administration. Correspondent Nicole Sganga broke down video footage of the deadly shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis by a federal immigration officer. A retired ICE agent who watched the footage frame by frame with CBS said the officer appeared to act improperly.

The segment streamed on the YouTube page of CBS Evening News. But it did not air on the flagship news program.

"There are always growing pains when you start something new," says former CBS News President Andrew Heyward, citing the reinvention of CBS Evening News with Dokoupil as anchor. "Those growing pains have been exacerbated by today's polarized political atmosphere and execution errors."

"Now comes the hard slog of, day after day, drawing on CBS News's journalistic capacities to do original reporting that delivers real value to the existing audience and attracts new people without chasing away the people who like what they see," Heyward says.

Weiss told staffers Tuesday that she's thinking of CBS News as a start-up.

"If we all do our jobs right, in a year's time CBS News will look very different," Weiss said in her prepared remarks. "But start-ups aren't for everyone. They're places that move at rapid speed. They experiment. They try new things. They sometimes create noise and, yes, bad press!"

"If that's not your bag... that's okay," Weiss added. "But if what I'm describing sounds exciting and exhilarating to you... I am here to work very hard alongside you. What I can promise you in return is a common, shared purpose, the freedom to do great work and to see it aggressively promoted, and the stability and support you deserve."

California legislative Democrats are urging their congressional colleagues to shut down the federal government and block further funding to immigration enforcement agencies after agents shot and killed another civilian in Minnesota over the weekend.

At least 50 Democratic state senators and assemblymembers — more than half the party’s caucus — on Monday decried the slaying of Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis resident and Veterans Affairs intensive care nurse who on Saturday was gunned down by federal immigration enforcement agents.

The lawmakers proclaimed their solidarity with Minnesota and other cities and states that have been targeted by federal law enforcement agents. They railed against what they called the Trump administration’s militarization of American cities as some wiped away tears.

The previously bipartisan spending package, which would fund the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security, awaits a vote in the U.S. Senate, where an increasing number of Democrats have vowed to filibuster it.

But California lawmakers warned that Senate Democrats, many of whom represent battleground states, might cave and give Republicans the votes they need to push the measure to President Donald Trump’s desk.

“This message is for Sen. Chuck Schumer,” said Assemblymember Liz Ortega, Democrat of Hayward. “Do your job. Stand for something. Don't fold again.”

Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, Democrat of Salinas, called for Schumer to “step aside” if he couldn’t keep his caucus in lockstep.

Rivas and his colleagues also had a message for Republican lawmakers.

“We need you to speak out. You cannot watch these videos coming out of Minneapolis, Minn. and think that this is acceptable,” Rivas said. “We need your voice, we need your solidarity, and standing up for American values.”

In reference to the fact that Pretti was apparently carrying a permitted weapon, Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez of Los Angeles quoted a 2018 tweet from the late Charlie Kirk, which stated that the Second Amendment wasn’t for hunting or self protection, but “to ensure that free people can defend themselves if, god forbid, government became tyrannical and turned against its citizens."

“What do you call a masked agent killing people in the street? What do you call children being taken from families?” Gonzalez said.

He noted that the National Rifle Association condemned premature conclusions about the shooting as “dangerous and wrong.”

“Even the NRA is calling out the dangerous ignorance of federal officials trying to excuse the killing of Alex Pretti,” Gonzalez said. “When even staunch defenders of the Second Amendment recognize the need for accountability, we must listen.”

Senate President Pro Tem Monique Limón addresses the media while flanked by Democratic members of the Senate and the Assembly at the Capitol Annex Swing Space in Sacramento.

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So far, California Republicans have targeted their criticism mainly at Democrats. Republican legislative leadership deferred to other members of their caucus when asked for comment.

Sen. Tony Strickland, Republican of Huntington Beach, said Democratic officials have created risky and unsafe conditions for both the agents and civilian onlookers through so-called “sanctuary” policies that limit local and state law enforcement from working with federal immigration agents. They argue that those policies create risky situations where civilians like Pretti feel they need to monitor and track officers.

“Stop the rhetoric that ICE agents are Gestapo, that they’re secret police, that they’re Nazis,” said Assemblymember James Gallagher of Chico, the former Republican Assembly leader who recently announced his bid for the special election to fulfill the final months of the late Rep. Doug LaMalfa’s congressional term. “This type of rhetoric is helping to contribute to the chaotic environment in places like Minnesota.”

Gallagher called Pretti’s death a “terrible thing” and called for an independent investigation and accountability.

Legislation calls for greater ICE oversight

Some lawmakers are committing to introduce new measures to curtail the power of federal agents.

“Certainly this is a frustrating situation because so much of the power and the authority here is in the hands of the federal government in Washington, D.C., but that doesn't mean that the answer for us is to do nothing,” said Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, Democrat of Encino.

Gabriel plans to introduce a bill that would require the California attorney general to conduct an independent investigation into any shooting by federal immigration enforcement agents in the state, an extension of an existing law that already requires such investigations for shootings by local and state law enforcement. He will also co-author a bill with Assemblymember Juan Carrillo that would ban federal immigration enforcement agencies from using state resources to facilitate their operations, such as staging equipment and personnel on state property.

“We have to use every tool at our disposal, every lawful opportunity that we have to use our power, our authority to think of all of the different ways that we can push back,” Gabriel said.

Also on deck for a vote in the California Senate this week is Senate Bill 747 co-authored by Sen. Aisha Wahab of Hayward and Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat who is running to replace Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi in Congress, that would allow Californians to sue federal agents for civil rights violations. The bill builds upon Wiener’s measure from last year that banned federal immigration enforcement agents from wearing masks, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law.

Wiener argued that the issue should not be partisan.

“This is really about everyone's rights under any federal administration,” Wiener told CalMatters on Monday. “Local and state law enforcement are already subject to civil rights liability if they violate someone's rights, and federal agents effectively are not,” he said.

“This is simply seeking to apply the same standards for all law enforcement.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Federal immigration enforcement authorities are facing scrutiny and widespread criticism over their tactics, including the lack of body-worn cameras, following the killing of two U.S. citizens by immigration officers in Minneapolis.

Several factors have led to this: Federal law does not mandate the use of body cameras by the two agencies tasked with leading the efforts to arrest and detain illegal immigrants — Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. Additionally, there is a shortage of cameras and a de-prioritization of body-camera programs in the second Trump administration.

This month, immigration officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis — Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti – in separate incidents, and have since been confronted by large crowds of protesters and legal observers. The administration has defended the actions of the two officers involved in the shootings.

After Pretti's killing Saturday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the VA nurse was committing an "act of terrorism" by "attacking" officers and "brandishing" a weapon. The video evidence and eyewitness accounts that have surfaced so far refute that assertion. There has been no evidence that NPR has verified of Pretti brandishing his handgun at any time during the encounter with federal agents.

"There is body camera footage from multiple angles which investigators are currently reviewing," a DHS official told NPR in a statement Monday. The investigation is being led by Homeland Security Investigations, a division of ICE, and supported by the Federal Bureau of Investigations. CBP will also do an internal investigation.

There are about 2,000 immigration officers rotating through Minneapolis for what the administration dubs "Operation Metro Surge." Democratic lawmakers and immigration advocates have criticized the rapid deployment of ICE officers and Border Patrol agents, as well as the officers' tactics to control crowds and conduct arrests. Minnesota officials are suing the administration over these tactics. Criticism has also centered on whether officers are or should be using body-worn cameras that can document these incidents.

A shortage of body cams

ICE is struggling in Minneapolis to use body-worn cameras: first, there are none available in the area; second, officers deployed are not properly trained in their use.
In written testimony, Samuel Olson, field office director in St. Paul for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, said that body-worn cameras had not been implemented for ICE officers out of his office.

"To equip every ICE law enforcement personnel operating out of Minnesota with a BWC [body worn camera] device will require approximately 2,000 devices," Olson said, adding that ICE would also need 180 days to ship, install, and test the necessary equipment and train hundreds of law enforcement personnel on proper usage, maintenance, and storage.

Furthermore, there are no body-worn cameras "physically located" at the St. Paul field office and that the agency would have to ship in additional devices, potentially needing more than ICE nationally has.

"At this time, the ERO St. Paul Office is not scheduled or funded for BWC deployment. ICE law enforcement personnel out of the ERO St. Paul Offices are not properly prepared, trained, or equipped for an immediate deployment of BWC use," Olson said.

Customs and Border Protection has a slightly different situation.

According to court filings, body cameras "will be used to record official law enforcement encounters, except when doing so may jeopardize agents and officers or public safety."

"For purposes of Operation Metro Surge, CBP personnel who are equipped with and trained in [body cameras], have been instructed to have their body-worn camera on their person for use in operations," said Kyle Harvick, deputy incident commander with Border Patrol overseeing border patrol operation in Minneapolis during "Operation Metro Surge."

Changing policy on body cameras

In 2021 Congress mandated ICE work with the Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties to design a pilot program for body-worn cameras. A 2024 report says the agency expected body cameras to be implemented agency wide by September 2025.

This was a part of a broader Biden administration executive order to expand the use of body cameras to federal law enforcement.

When President Donald Trump began his second term in 2025, he rescinded Biden's executive order related to body camera use by federal law enforcement. The office tasked with helping to oversee the ICE pilot program was also depleted.

The use of body cameras has surfaced several times during the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. In Chicago, District Judge Sara Ellis issued a temporary restraining order in October ordering federal agents conducting immigration enforcement in her district to activate their body cameras if they have them and unless exempted by agency policy. An appeals panel in the seventh circuit later overturned Ellis' order, which also included broader limits on use of force.

In order to address concerns about the lack of body cameras, lawmakers in the House recently passed a spending bill that would provide DHS with $20 million for cameras for ICE and CBP. But the bill only mandates the money be spent -- it does not mandate the use of the cameras.

After the latest deadly shooting, the broader package is in limbo. Senate Democrats are seemingly more resistant to passing the package, which would fund the entire federal government.
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