(Credit for Photo: Photo Courtesy of WNEP)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Harrisburg, PA) Counties in Pennsylvania can allow their probation officers to wear body cameras on the job, which they were unable to do previously under Pennsylvania’s Wiretap Act. 

Governor Josh Shapiro held a ceremonial signing for Act of 81 of 2026 yesterday, which State Representative Ryan Bizzarro sponsored earlier this year.

This was when Erie County Council learned that body cameras that it purchased could be used by sheriff’s deputies, but not by adult and juvenile probation officers. 

The Wiretap Act prohibits non-consensual recording of conversations, but it exempts certain members of law enforcement.

This includes municipal police, state parole agents and sheriff’s deputies.

County probation officers were not explicitly exempt from the law until Act 81 of 2026.

The bill passed on October 21st and Shapiro signed it into law the next day. 

Forty-three-year-old Marchello D. Woodard of Erie was shot and killed by state parole officer Kevin Seelinger on July 2nd, 2025, and this served as a catalyst for Erie County to review its own security policies.

Seelinger did not wear a body camera at the time of this shooting despite being legally exempt from Pennsylvania’s Wiretap Act.