The data and information included on this site are gathered using application programming interfaces (APIs) or are obtained from publicly available sources. The APIs retrieve data from the websites of government-operated agencies and publish it on this database unaltered. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) and the Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) cannot verify the accuracy of any reported data. The data and information provided herein are solely intended to be educational tools and do not constitute the provision of legal advice, nor do they establish any attorney-client relationship with LDF or TMI.

“Ninety-nine percent of these videos never get looked at,” Keller said. “Four hundred days later, they go away (expire) without ever being seen or looked at by anyone.”

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“There were some concerns about privacy, or the cameras being barriers to patient care,” Keller said. “If we come into your home and you don’t want to be filmed, we will turn it off, because we want to respect patient privacy. But if we’re in a residence and something happens, and let’s say an angry family member comes by and begins assaulting our crew, we can start the cameras again for our own protection.”

Chris Keller, deputy chief of operations at NOEMS said, “We’ve had a high number of assaults over the past couple of years on our staff.”

It’s easy for the public to know when the cameras are recording. In standby mode, the camera blinks green. When the medic double-taps the camera to activate it, it blinks red while recording.

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NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) -- It’s a tool that many police departments have used for years. Now, other first responders hope to see the benefits of body-worn cameras.

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“During Mardi Gras and other events, we’re able to go live and look at the crowds,” Salmeron said. “We’re able to look and see what’s going on with the crew. Are they safe? Sometimes during Mardi Gras, things get hectic. Sometimes, we might miss a unit number on the radio, and we have to go live to make sure our crew is OK. We can also see what resources they might need.”

Grant data are updated on an ad hoc basis, generally once per quarter as our resources permit. The list of federal grant programs was last published on Jan 10, 2023.

Local law enforcement agencies can receive funding from a variety of federal departments, including the Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Transportation. Each department provides funding via programs defined as Assistance Listings (formerly the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, or CFDA). Each program is identified by a five-digit number. Learn more about Assistance Listings at SAM.gov.

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Keller says body-worn camera footage is protected under federal patent privacy laws known as HIPAA. Videos are kept over a year in case of litigation or the need to review because of a complaint.

Program descriptions are paraphrased from state and federal government departmental websites. These descriptions do not represent the positions of LDF or its Thurgood Marshall Institute.

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“If there is a patient that says, ‘Look, I just don’t feel comfortable with a camera,’ then there is an option to turn it off,” Salmeron said. “We want to also respect the public’s choice to not be on camera, especially if they’re experiencing some sort of private health emergency.”

“Everybody is always a little apprehensive about wearing a camera,” said Kevin Melgaard, AXON’s vice president of new markets. “We saw the same trend in law enforcement, but that was quickly overcome. I think once the teams are using the tool and seeing the improvement in patient care, they are able to see even beyond the quality insurance, quality improvement.”

Law enforcement agencies across the country receive money from the federal government every year through grant programs. They use these funds for a wide range of policing activities, such as hiring new officers and purchasing body-worn cameras.

The AXON cameras NOEMS uses can live stream. This gives supervisors and those at headquarters the opportunity to tap into the live feed.

In 2022, NOEMS Lt. Noah Feldman told Fox 8, “I was attacked in the back of a unit and had my nose broken on the way to the hospital.”

Keller said, “We wanted some type of bridge or safety barrier for our crews, or as a recourse to prosecute the assailants who cause harm to our medics on scene.”

Bill Salmeron, chief of NOEMS said, “We’re on camera everywhere. So, we wanted to have an opportunity to have that sterile video that we can look at from our side, to see the entire situation.”

Since 2022, NOEMS spent $46,000 on 45 body-worn cameras for captains, lieutenants, field training officers and employees who voluntarily want to wear one. Eventually, the department wants all employees in the field to be outfitted with a camera to help dissuade physical attacks.

Attacks on medics, across the country and here in New Orleans, have prompted New Orleans EMS (NOEMS) to outfit some personnel with cameras for their protection.

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“When we do blood or a cardiac arrest or a more serious call, we’re able to go back and look at that call and make sure everything is done properly,” Salmeron said. “Also, we can learn from anything that we need to learn from.”

Before receiving federal grant funds, law enforcement agencies must verify that they will comply with civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin.

According to camera manufacturer AXON, nearly 100 EMS departments across the country are using their BWCs, with New Orleans EMS being the largest.

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New Orleans EMS says the cameras store a shift’s worth of footage on internal memory. When placed on a charger, the footage is automatically uploaded to a secure server.

All federal grants data presented on this site are provided via the USASpending API. The description of each grant links directly to the grant detail page on USASpending.gov. For this database, we have chosen to monitor a subset of funding sources (identified by CFDA numbers) that commonly fund law enforcement agencies, in order to reduce the amount of manual review needed and allow us to present data for more cities and counties. As a result, the grant totals shown for a city or county likely do not represent the entirety of federal grant funding to that jurisdiction’s law enforcement agencies.

Salmeron said the live stream feature could be a vital tool during a mass casualty event. But more often, the videos are used for training.