Public Hearing On Police Body Cameras To Be Held Thursday Night
BOSTON (CBS) -- A public hearing will be held Thursday night on a pilot program that would put body cameras on some Boston Police officers.
Residents will get a chance to weigh in on the plan at a hearing hosted by a City Council committee at the Mildred Community Center at 5:30 p.m.
City Council member Andrea Campbell said the hearing's purpose is to bring Boston Police, city officials, activists, and community members together all in one room to discuss the program.
"I think there are some folks who maybe thought we didn't need [police body cameras] in the beginning, but have since come around based on conversations with their residents and their constituents at some of these community meetings," Campbell said.
Last month, Boston Police said they came to an agreement with the patrolmen's association to launch the six-month pilot program.
Up to 100 patrol officers will wear body cameras, and the program would be voluntary--meaning officers can choose if they wish to wear the cameras.
But the start date of the program is still being finalized. Police initially said they hoped to start the program by July.
"Today, we'll be pushing for a concrete date," said Segun Idowu, a co-organizer of the Boston Police Camera Action Team.
Campbell said the program is slated to start "hopefully by the end of the month."
"I don't know that we'll have a hard date," Campbell said. "I know the commissioner is working hard to get this done as soon as possible. He may be able to speak to a hard date this evening, I don't know."
Idowu told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Ben Parker that his group has been working for a while to get a camera program in place, and says the process has been agonizingly slow.
"It's been a year now, to start just a pilot program," he said. "If a pilot is what they need to do to get officers acclimated to the cameras, I think that's fine. I personally believe that there are enough cities and towns that have done this, there are enough studies that have been done to show their purpose and to show how best to do it."
Idowu said there's more to the cameras than just keeping track of how officers are doing their job.
"They also help police," he said. "They help keep police safe from fraudulent claims of abuse, but they also help with training."
Half a million dollars were allocated in Mayor Marty Walsh's 2017 budget to support the program.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Ben Parker reports