WASHINGTON — The U.S. Border Patrol will begin testing body-worn cameras on agents next month, the head of its parent agency said Thursday, a step toward seeing whether the technology should be used in the field as the government seeks to blunt criticism about agents’ use of force.
R. Gil Kerlikowske, customs and border protection commissioner since March, said a variety of cameras will be tested beginning Oct. 1 at the Border Patrol’s training academy in Artesia, N.M.
He didn’t say when or even if cameras will be introduced to the roughly 21,000 agents in the field.
Kerlikowske, a former Seattle police chief, has moved more aggressively than his predecessors to address complaints that Customs and Border Protection is slow to investigate incidents of deadly force and alleged abuses by agents and inspectors, and that it lacks transparency.
