Freddie Gray death in custody: Obama administration to spend $20m on police body cameras

Campaigners have called for all officers to be equipped with cameras a means of documenting arrests

The Obama administration has responded to the spate of incidents in which black suspects have died in police custody by providing an extra $20m to equip officers with body cameras.

In the aftermath of incident such as the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore and the shooting of Walter Scott in South Carolina, campaigns have called for all police to wear body cameras.

The importance of video footage from mobile phones, CCTVs and the police’s own cameras has taken on an increasingly important role as people try to hold officers to account.

In a statement, the US Department of Justice said on Friday that it would provide the $20m in grants to local forces. Reuters said the grants to police forces represented the first portion to be approved by Congress of a $75m three-year body camera funding programme that was requested in December by President Barack Obama.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said last week that she would launch a body-camera pilot programme following the death in police custody of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, whose death sparked days of peaceful protests and erupted in riots on the day he was buried, earlier this week.