MS HB1279

Requires law enforcement officers primarily assigned to patrol duties and wearing uniforms to wear body-worn cameras and continuously record all citizen contacts during official duties, with limited exceptions for interactions with other officers, undercover operations, strip searches, personal activities, and private locations.

Mandates recordings be retained for 120 days minimum, or 3 years if involving use of force, arrests, complaints against officers, or pending record requests; recordings containing criminal evidence must be retained under standard evidence procedures.

Establishes that subjects of recordings, their parents, guardians, attorneys, and certain affected parties may request copies of un-redacted recordings; all access to recordings must be audited and authorized by the sheriff or chief.

Prohibits use of facial recognition technology with body-worn cameras unless authorized by court order and prevents officers from viewing recordings before writing reports or editing/sharing recordings without authorization.

Creates presumption that missing required recordings would support the account of parties opposing officers in misconduct investigations, and requires law enforcement agencies to collect usage statistics and conduct random audits of camera operations.