Boston Police Ready to Launch Body Camera Program

Boston police look set to roll out body cameras after several months of defiance from officers.

On September 1 the cameras will officially be put on 100 police officers. The officers were handpicked by a department consultant,  as none of them voluntarily agreed to help with the launch.

Racially diverse groups of officers were selected, these include 55 whites, 29  Blacks, 13  Latinos and 3 Asians. Overall, 87 of them are men.

The police department plans to test the cameras in use in the neighborhoods, where crime rates are high in Boston. The trial is said to last for six-months. Actually, it had already begun last week, as officers were put through special training.

The program had been a subject of deliberation in the police department since 2014, because the police officers’ union was against the idea, while the police commissioner and the mayor had different views initially. Following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown activists protested and called for the provision of body cams to as many officers as possible.

This measure can be seen as a great step forward in the direction of reforming the police and making officers accountable for their actions. However, this hasn’t stopped the cops from killing Black civilians yet. Actually, according to a study, the use of body cameras is  surprisingly associated with a 3.64% increase in the shooting deaths of civilians by the police.

There have been numerous  shooting cases when either intentionally or accidentally the body cams got broken or were turned off at the exact time of the shooting. Based on that, we could say that the best way to curb police violence on Black people is the conviction of cops for their various murders.

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Source: The Grio