Police body camera program may come to Boston
The proposal would require officers to wear body cameras on their lapels and record all interactions with the public.
Boston police officers may soon be wearing body cameras, as The Boston Globe reports a proposal to adopt them is making its way into the City Council.
The pilot program is currently running in several major cities – including New York, Chicago, and Detroit – spurred by the deaths of unarmed African-American men in Ferguson, MO., New York, South Carolina, and Baltimore, to name just a few, and by the frequency with which police are being caught on camera during instances of misconduct.
“Accountability is a very important requirement for any police department and in light of the national trend of instances where individual citizens have been subject to deadly force, it would be helpful to have documented evidence,’’ Boston City Councilor Charles Yancey, who sponsored the proposal, told The Globe.
The proposal calls for all uniformed and plainclothes officers in the field — excluding undercover or off-duty officers — to wear body cameras on their lapels and record all interactions with the public. It will be heard by the city council at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
For the full Globe report, click here.
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