Cambridge To Implement Police Bodycams For The 1st Time

CAMBRIDGE, MA — In the wake of the deadly shooting of a college student by a police officer in January and after a recent policy order, Cambridge Police have entered the early stages of implementing police body cameras first the first time, the department told Patch Friday afternoon.

The announcement comes after several conversations within the city about the police department and the potential implementation of body cameras, including at public meetings in 2020 and 2022, Cambridge Police said.

In June 2020, the Cambridge City Council requested a hearing to discuss the possible use of body cameras by the Cambridge Police Department.

"The research results are mixed about whether the technology decreases the use of force ... But it is a conversation that is happening in places and is a conversation that I think we should have here," Councillor Marc McGovern said, adding that it was a conversation the police commissioner would like to have as well.

Two years later, in 2022, McGovern was still advocating for body cameras, which were still not in the city's budget.

"We all know that they do not prevent crime, but they do provide accountability, and I think with all these things we've seen nationally where mostly Black and Brown men are, in some cases, murdered [or] shot — those cases would not really be known if those officers did not have body cameras," McGovern said during a May 2022 Finance Committee meeting.

The Council's wish, and that of many people of Cambridge, at last came true Tuesday, when City Manager Yi-An Huang announced in a news release that following the shooting death of Arif Sayed Faisal by a Cambridge police officer in January, he is "fully committed to making changes going forward, including acting with urgency on the actions recommended by the Council."

"We will implement body cameras," Huang said. "We will use alternative responses to emergency calls outside of the police department. We will evaluate additional less lethal options. We will deliver a procedural justice dashboard. We will hire a credible, independent consultant to review and make recommendations across our police department’s training, policies, and practices and the full report will be made public. We will seek to strengthen the City’s mental health resources and enhance our outreach to underserved communities. And we will continue to be in dialogue with the Council and the community on how we can keep improving."

The early stages of body camera implementation include drafting policies, speaking with potential vendors, renewing conversations with unions, determining the training needs for the department, drafting a Surveillance Technology Impact Report that must be submitted by the City Manager to the City Council before the City seeks funds for Surveillance Technology, and engaging with the community, Cambridge Police told Patch.

"The goal is to fast-track an implementation as quickly as possible, but as is outlined, there are several processes that we will need to and are aggressively working our way through," Jeremy Warnick, Cambridge Police Department's director of communications and media relations said.

Huang added in the news release that over the years, he has "shared in our collective grief from the tragic deaths of Tamir Rice, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Tyre Nichols, and so many others."

"As a nation, we are wrestling with how to fix policing, and Faisal’s death highlights that even in Cambridge, we have more work to accomplish," Huang said.