Houston's top law enforcement agencies have declined to disclose their rules regarding officers' use of body cameras, including when they're required to have them on or turn them off.
The Houston Chronicle reported Sunday that its requests for details from the Houston Police Department and the Harris County Sheriff's Office have been denied.
Houston police spent $108,000 two years ago on 100 cameras that are the size of a pager and go on the front of an officer's uniform. Officials are also asking for $8 million to buy cameras for 3,500 officers.
Police released edited videos this month of six incidents between officers wearing cameras and city residents. But the department has refused to release detailed results of its pilot program because it argues the results could complicate the purchase of more body cameras.
It has asked the Texas attorney general's office for permission to withhold the information.
Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia also refused to release the office's policy on body cameras.
"Right now, we are not sharing the pilot project policy because it's not the final policy," sheriff's spokesman Alan Bernstein said.
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The Houston Independent School District did release its policy for school district officers. HISD officers are instructed not to record strip searches and to consider religious practices, such as not filming women who typically wear face coverings but are not wearing them at home.
Departments throughout the U.S. have invested millions of dollars in body cameras, which have received renewed attention due to high-profile incidents of violence between police and citizens in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York City.
