Worcester Will Pursue Body Cameras For All Police Offiers

WORCESTER, MA — The Worcester City Council on Tuesday voted to move forward with a plan to outfit every police officer with a body camera.

On Friday, the police department released a report on a bodycam pilot program that took place between May and October 2019 with a few officers. The report said that a full bodycam program could cost between $9 and $11 million over five years.

District 1 Councilor Sean Rose introduced an order for full bodycam implementation several weeks ago. After Tuesday's vote, Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. will find a way to pay for the bodycam program, and the City Council will work on a policy for how the cameras will be used.

"For weeks, people have been asking for transparency, safety, and accountability," Rose said in a news release on July 1. "The implementation of this plan addresses that for our WPD and the community as a whole."

READ: Worcester Police Withhold Many Use-Of-Force Body Camera Videos

Rose's bodycam order came after a new push to reduce funding for Worcester police. Activists had sought to keep the police department's budget level heading into the 2021 fiscal year. Those activists, allied under the Defund WPD banner, are opposed to the full bodycam program.

If it goes forward, the money should come from the existing Worcester police budget, they say.

"The WPD estimates that a body camera program will cost taxpayers a minimum of $4.4 million in its first year and $9 million to $11 million over the next five years," Defund WPD said in a statement Tuesday night. "As noted in the report by one WPD officer, a 'majority' of police calls involve a community member having a mental health crisis. Ironically, the body camera program’s $4.4 million start-up cost is more than the entirety of the fiscal 2021 budget for the city’s Department of Health and Human Services."

During the 2019 pilot, the 20 officers wearing the cameras recorded over 7,700 videos. The report on the pilot found benefits and downsides to the cameras.

On the upside, the cameras allowed officers to critique their own behavior on the job, made evidence collection easier, and made it easier to resolve complaints. On the downside, the cameras required a lot of manpower, change officer behavior, and prevent officers from using "necessary force" in some instances.

"They thought that cameras caused them to become more 'robotic,' and less able to joke around and have fun while doing their jobs," the report says. "Some officers felt pressure to maintain the demeanor of someone testifying in court."