Yet the cameras can come at a steep cost, and a state grant program has proved essential for some departments to purchase the technology, particularly in smaller communities with tighter budgets.
For the public, the cameras offer a path to greater transparency. They may provide the only direct view of disputed police misconduct or use of force incidents.
But the cameras can also protect officers against frivolous or inaccurate complaints, Watertown Police Chief Justin Hanrahan said.
“It’s a really good tool for many reasons,” he said.
This summer, his department received $234,000 in state money for its first body cameras, which are affixed to the chest of an officer’s uniform to capture interactions with the public.
But for the roughly 70-person department, body cameras could run $1 million or more.
“It’s not just the cost of cameras and the technology to back up the videos,” Hanrahan explained. “You need more manpower to manage it. It doesn’t just fix itself. Who’s going to manage the requests for public records?”
About a third of Mass. police departments received body cam grants
The Greater Boston suburb was one of 32 communities recently awarded a collective $3 million from the state’s Law Enforcement Body-Worn Camera Program.
Over four years of operation, the program dolled out nearly $13.2 million to 139 police departments, nearly a third of the departments in Massachusetts, according to the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.
“This technology has become an essential tool for law enforcement,” Gov. Maura Healey said after announcing the latest round of grants in July.
“There’s a benefit of having an objective record of what goes on in the field,” Sturbridge Police Chief Earl Dessert said.
His department first received state money for body cameras two years ago. Last year, with another state grant, the department added software to help redact the videos. Finally, a roughly $20,000 grant this summer allowed the Sturbridge Police to upgrade its computer technology to make redacting footage quicker and easier.
“I said, let’s go for it while this money is still available,” Dessert said.
Using state grant money, the 16-person Winchendon Police Department introduced body cameras in 2022. This summer, it received another grant to purchase more dashboard cameras for police cruisers.
“It’s becoming the norm,” Winchendon Police Chief Daniel Wolski said. “I feel the public has an expectation that we have this equipment. So if we get a new cruiser and don’t have the dash cam to put in there, and we respond to a call and someone asks for the footage and we don’t have it, that seems to be an inadequate response in this day and age.”
If a situation escalates, Hanrahan said police will want their cameras recording. In some instances where police officers have used deadly force against civilians, body camera footage has helped establish whether they acted in self-defense.
The Massachusetts State Police issued body cameras to its 2,200 members three years ago, a reform adopted after the agency’s 2018 overtime scandal.
The cameras have shown success in repeated studies.
In one, Northeastern University researchers found there was a reduction in citizen complaints and a drop in police use-of-force reports when some Boston Police officers wore cameras as part of a pilot program.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts approves of the technology, writing in a 2016 position paper that the cameras can “protect both law enforcement officers and community members.”
But the ACLU wants departments adding body cameras to “do it right,” including by considering the privacy implications of officers recording their day-to-day activities and interactions with civilians.
Developing a body-worn camera policy
In Watertown, Hanrahan is pondering whether all public contact ought to be recorded, right down to city residents asking officers for directions. Should medical calls be documented by video, he asked, at risk of infringing on individuals’ privacy? What about a call to assist with a sensitive domestic confrontation at a private home?
“Do you have them on there?” Hanrahan said. “That’s the things we’re ironing out in our policy.”
Video footage can also be a massive drain on data storage space, which can be expensive to maintain.
Like other police chiefs, Wolski said the costs of body-worn camera technology present its main challenge — “particularly for small towns with a limited budget.”
As with all technology, he knows the cameras will improve in the coming years, likely necessitating more spending to keep up with the times.
“Similarly to the iPhone, every year they come up with a better one,” Wolski said.
Camera costs can increase quickly depending on the features police want, Hanrahan said. Some cameras begin recording manually, while others are activated automatically when an officer turns on their cruiser’s blue lights or draws their gun. Some cameras upload their footage automatically when an officer drives within a certain distance of police headquarters. Some even provide supervisors with a live stream of their officers’ cameras.
Then there’s the added cost of managing the cameras — a full-time job in some departments. The state recommends assigning one person to provide full-time support for every 75 officers outfitted with body-worn cameras. The grant program does not support payroll expenses, so departments must cover any new hires tied to its body camera program.
Hanrahan became the Watertown police chief last November. After receiving the grant money, he’s weighing different cameras and hopes to use them by the end of the year.
He said the city plans to cover any gap remaining between the grant funding and the expected $1 million price tag.
Wolski hopes state lawmakers will continue funding the grant program.
“I can’t speak for everyone, but for myself, for the most part, the policing profession supports body-worn [camera] programs but the cost of maintaining a program can be a challenge, particularly for smaller agencies,” he said. “I hope these grant opportunities continue so we can satisfy what appears to be a public desire for police to be outfitted.”
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