Following years of calls for the Worcester Police Department to implement a body camera program, police officials say officers will begin wearing the cams Feb. 27.
In a recent memo to City Council, Police Chief Steve Sargent said the department possesses 300 body cams and officers have received training on how to operate them. Worcester police also have drafted a policy with input from the city’s law department that will govern when officers must turn on the cameras.
“I believe this technology will enhance safety, accountability and transparency,” Sargent wrote in the memo. “The department is committed to the success of the [Body Worn Camera] Program and we look forward to rolling it out over the next several months with the support of the City Council.”
The program makes Worcester, the second-largest locality in New England, the last of the region's most populous cities to implement body cameras — officers in Boston, Providence, Springfield, Hartford, New Haven and Stamford already wear the devices. The rollout also comes as the U.S. Department of Justice investigates Worcester police for excessive use of force and discriminatory policing based on race and sex.
Worcester officials have been considering body cameras since 2014 when a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, fatally shot Michael Brown. In recent years, Worcester police have slowly worked toward creating a body camera program, holding community listening sessions on the matter and outfitting a small group of officers with body cams as part of a brief pilot program in 2019.
At times, police officials have expressed concerns that body cams may make officers hesitant to be proactive and use force when necessary for fear of public criticism. City officials also said they were having difficulty securing funding for a permanent body cam program.
Still, city councilors and social justice activists continued to call for police body cams, and early last year the police department secured funding from the state to purchase 300 cameras. The department originally said the body cams would be deployed on officers by late 2022, but supply chain issues delayed their delivery.
“We’ve been waiting eight years for the implementation of body cameras,” City Councilor Khrystian King said during a council meeting Tuesday. “We know that they don’t just implicate, they exonerate.”
The 300 body cameras will be given to officers whose work includes neighborhood response, traffic and vice. A spokesperson for the police department said the 170 other members of the police department, including staffers in police headquarters, will not immediately wear cameras.
According to the policy that will guide the department’s use of the cams, officers will be required to turn them on during police-civilian encounters including 911 calls, non-emergency calls for service, and police-initiated investigations and stops. Although not required, the department recommends officers notify civilians when their cameras are recording.
Officers do not have to activate their cameras during casual conversations and encounters. In sensitive locations like locker rooms, places of worship and law offices where there may be a reasonable expectation for privacy, the policy lets officers use the cams at their own discretion.
During the City Council meeting Tuesday, some councilors raised concerns about other aspects of the policy, including the department’s handling of body cam footage. The policy lets officers review their recordings before preparing reports, except when police used force during an incident. In those cases, officers must write an initial incident report before reviewing the recording.
King called this section of the policy inconsistent, and he and Councilor Thu Nguyen said the department should amend it to require officers to always write an initial report before viewing the footage. They then can produce a supplemental report after seeing the recording.
“That’s very important when it comes to all this,” King said, adding that failure to change the section would be a missed opportunity to make the video review process more transparent.
While Sargent did not immediately say whether he would follow through with King and Nguyen’s suggestion, he told council the department will regularly evaluate and update the body cam policy when needed. The department also will conduct random audit reviews of footage to identify any potential deficiencies with the program.
“[This program] is a huge change in policing. It’s a wanted change,” Sargent said. “We will definitely be staying ahead of best practices and making sure our community is safe and our officers are safe.”
