Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), along with a handful of House Democrats, will introduce two bills requiring federal officers to use body and dashboard cameras on marked vehicles and terminate President Donald Trump‘s federalization of the Washington, D.C., police force.
The legislation will include Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Park Police among those who must use cameras. This comes after President Donald Trump placed the district’s Metropolitan Police Department “under direct federal control” and deployed National Guard troops in the capital.
Norton will be joined by House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD), House Oversight ranking member Robert Garcia (D-CA), and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) in the effort to terminate Trump’s federalization. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) will join Norton’s effort to require body and dash cameras.
“Every day Washingtonians are confronted with new outrages from Trump’s unwanted and unjustified occupation of D.C., including arrests using excessive force that put people in unnecessary danger,” Beyer said in a press release on Wednesday.
“Many of these encounters have been captured on video taken by bystanders or journalists, and I cannot help but wonder what we are not seeing because it is not caught on video. I have the same concern with ICE raids in Northern Virginia, which like the federal escalation in DC, are carried out by masked agents in unmarked vehicles who give no justification for their actions,” he continued.
The bills are set to be introduced in September when Congress returns from its 6-week district work period, also known as recess.
Along with the two bills, Norton and Van Hollen will reintroduce bills to grant the district full control over its National Guard and the police.
“This is not just about self-governance for D.C. – it’s also about preventing authoritarian overreach by a lawless president like we are witnessing today,” Van Hollen wrote in the press release last week.
Norton has also been pushing back on Trump’s decision on X.
Norton, 88, has faced quiet but persistent concerns from members of the Council of the District of Columbia and congressional colleagues about whether she should seek another term. In June, she twice told reporters that she planned to run for reelection. However, Norton’s spokeswoman, Sharon Nichols, walked back the remarks shortly afterward.
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While the district’s longtime delegate issued several statements last week, she was notably absent from any press events with Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser.
“With a president in the White House abusing his power over federal law enforcement to compel local governments to enforce his cruel and inhumane policies, our country needs this bill. For D.C., that need could not be more urgent,” Norton said in a press release.