D.C. Video of Federal Police Shooting at People May Soon Be Made Public

The Washington Post

12:19 JST, March 4, 2026

Body-camera footage from at least two federal law-enforcement shootings in D.C. last fall could soon become public under legislation approved Tuesday, part of an effort to boost transparency as an elevated federal presence continues to transform city policing.

The emergency legislation approved by the D.C. Council requires the city’s police department to release available footage in cases where a local officer wearing a body camera witnesses federal officers shooting someone. A separate measure requires the city’s police to document all federal law enforcement officers present during an arrest, along with any use of force.

The bills come nearly seven months after federal police officers began patrolling D.C. streets in escalating numbers following President Donald Trump’s declaration of a “crime emergency” in the city. While that surge has quieted, a federal task force still patrols jointly with D.C. police.

The council does not have authority over federal law enforcement agencies, which, unlike D.C. police, are not required to release body-camera footage and do so only at their discretion. But the city does have power over its own force, leaving lawmakers a narrow lane to mandate more transparency in cases where local and federal police are at the same scene.

“This is one window of insight we have,” said council member Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), who chairs the public safety committee and introduced one of the bills. “Especially in the hopefully limited events of serious use of force, the public deserves the right to see that when it’s happening in our streets.”

Yet while there was broad support for the legislation on the D.C. Council, political tension animated the debate. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) opposed the measures, writing in a letter to the council that they should leave the matter to Congress. The measures could also draw the scrutiny of Congress, where GOP lawmakers have attacked the city’s public safety policies in recent years.

And the bills, which had some overlap, also triggered competition between Pinto and council member Robert C. White Jr. (D-At Large), who are running against each other in the race to succeed D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton in Congress.

Ultimately, council members passed both measures unanimously, drawing a standing ovation and triumphant chants of “Free DC” from residents who gathered to watch.

The bills now move to the mayor’s desk.

If enacted, the body camera bill would apply retroactively to Aug. 1, meaning it would cover two cases from the fall in which D.C. police officers were present as Homeland Security Investigations officers shot into cars – in one case narrowly missing a man and in another, firing at a man during a car chase. Federal prosecutors declined to press charges against the agents.

The measures also tackle another issue that came up in one of the cases. Lawyers for Philip Brown, who escaped injury after being shot at in October, provided photos of bullet holes in the driver’s side window and passenger seat of his car and his jacket collar, showing just how close police bullets came. But a police public incident report after the incident did not mention the shooting. Then-police chief Pamela A. Smith denied that the department was trying to cover up the shooting.

White said the omission made the case for requiring local police to report federal agents’ use of force and presence at arrests. He called his proposal “a minimum of transparency protection for D.C. residents.”

In her letter to council, Bowser said “Congress has oversight over federal law enforcement agencies and can require a mask prohibition (which they are debating now) as well as body-worn cameras and name identification.”

D.C. police spokesman Tom Lynch declined to comment on the bills and deferred to Bowser’s letter.

Neither of the bills passed by the council attempted to prohibit federal officers from wearing masks, or impose new body camera and identification requirements on them.

White pushed back on the mayor’s opposition, saying Brown’s mother visited his office in tears and urged lawmakers to take action. It was not appropriate, he said, to tell her the city’s hands were tied, especially when D.C. police officers are on scene.

“I’m really concerned when a leader in D.C. says that people being shot in our city is not a D.C. issue,” White said.

The debate over the bills also surfaced tensions between political rivals Pinto and White, who each introduced measures related to body cameras. Pinto, invoking her title as public safety committee chair, appeared irked that White had moved forward with a similar police-related bill without working with her on it.

White argued that the council should combine the policies in his measure – calling Pinto’s insistence on her bill being separate “oddly territorial.” He did agree, however, to remove the body camera provision from his legislation and advance only the portion mandating the reporting of the presence of, or use of force by, federal officers during an arrest.

Free DC, a local organization formed to defend D.C. home rule that may make an influential endorsement in the delegate’s race, championed White’s effort in a statement Tuesday. But the group accused Pinto of failing to be proactive in pursuing accountability for federal police (Pinto said she had been working on the issue “every day” for months).

“Today’s bills mark progress but they are not the finish line,” said Free DC Executive Director Keya Chatterjee. “We will continue organizing for meaningful accountability, sustained transparency, and clear limits on MPD’s cooperation with federal forces in DC.”

The council passed emergency versions of each bill that last 90 days, as well as a temporary version that lasts 225 days. The temporary versions are also subject to review by Congress. Pinto said Tuesday that she had received assurances last week from contacts in Congress that no action would be taken to undermine her measure, though she was no longer sure those assurances applied now with the addition of White’s bill. Still, Pinto called passing both measures a “calculated risk” and said she believed White’s arrest documentation requirements were good policy.

The bills would not address shootings where D.C. police officers are not present to record – like the recent case of Julian Bailey, who was fatally shot by a deputy U.S. marshal last month. Bailey’s family has disputed the official narrative from the U.S. Marshals Service. The involved deputies were wearing cameras, but the agency has not made the footage public.

Still, council members said, they hope the measures will offer clarity in other cases.

Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) recalled a case last summer in which a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, who had been riding shotgun in a D.C. police cruiser, got out and ran after a food delivery driver who was pulled over, tackled him and broke both of his arms, according to witnesses.

Allen said the bills were an attempt to improve transparency and said the possibility of federal lawmakers objecting to the measures was “a risk worth taking.”

Council member Wendell Felder (D-Ward 7), whose ward was the site of both the Homeland Security Investigation shootings and the fatal shooting of Bailey, said he hoped to send a message to federal agents with ill intentions.

“If you are going to come in Ward 7 and in the District of Columbia, and you want to patrol our communities, and you have every intent to be a bad actor, this is not the city for you,” he said.