In the wake of the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager in Missouri, supporters of a “Michael Brown law” that would require police to wear a camera have successfully petitioned the White House for a response to the proposal.
The petition on the White House’s “We the People” website had attracted more than 148,000 signatures by Wednesday, exceeding the threshold of 100,000 within 30 days to prompt a reply by the administration.
The proposal would require all state, county and local police to wear cameras to record officers’ activity on duty. Mr. Brown, 18, was shot by a white police officer Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Missouri, prompting civil unrest.
The Justice Department is conducting a civil-rights investigation, and President Obama has ordered a review of the military-style hardware and tactics used by some local police departments.
“The law shall be made in an effort to not only detour police misconduct (i.e. brutality, profiling, abuse of power), but to ensure that all police are following procedure, and to remove all question, from normally questionable police encounters,” the petition states.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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