Police body cameras in Somerville?

[Melissa McWhinney]

Hello, all.  I won't be at tomorrow's DSNC meeting because I'll be attending the city's Special Meeting and Public Hearing on the question of whether Somerville police should be required to wear body cameras.  https://www.somervillema.gov/news/special-meeting-and-public-hearing-july-27-implementation-body-worn-cameras-somerville-police

In case others are interested, here's the ACLU/Massachusetts' model policy on body cameras for police.  There are always constitutional concerns, primarily about privacy, but also there are ways to get it right.  https://www.aclum.org/police-body-worn-cameras-lets-do-it-right/   

I have shared this policy with the Mayor and our City Councilors.  Please encourage them to consider adopting this policy if they move forward with body cameras.

Best,

Melissa McWhinney

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Melissa McWhinney, J.D.

mmcwh...@comcast.net

[Derrick Rice]

Thanks for advertising this, Melissa. I absolutely encourage folks to give public comment no matter your position on the issue (you can also send written comment to publicc...@somervillema.gov). For others, here are some notes about the public hearing tonight. 

- While you can certainly comment on what you'd like to see in a policy, the policy has already been written and is largely unable to be modified because collective bargaining with the police union specifies most of the policy terms. The city council is being asked by the mayor to vote YES or NO tonight. It would be very unlikely for the policy to change based on public comment. The current policy does not fully meet the ACLU of MA's model policy that Melissa linked to. So if that means you're not supportive, I suggest you say that explicitly in your public comment.

- Other considerations include that adopting BWC will require ongoing funding including giving the senior police officers a 2% raise for the inconvenience of wearing the cameras. Relatedly, the city recently laid off city hall employees due to budget limitations.

- This is a special meeting of city council called by mayoral privilege. City council is otherwise on summer recess. Interestingly, the mayor's director of intergovernmental affairs indicated that this was the administration's interest back at the last regular meeting of city council, and they unanimously said "no, thank you" (video here) but the mayor is calling the meeting anyway.

More information can be found in this community organizing update and this toolkit for public comment.

- Derrick Rice (he/him)

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[Melissa McWhinney]

Thanks for the helpful commentary.  I'm sorry I didn't learn of this community organizing effort sooner.  How have you reached out to people?  

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsnc-discussion/a75831c0-c563-41ae-8464-e405ba9dd935%40app.fastmail.com.

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Melissa McWhinney, Landlords for Affordable Housing

melissam...@gmail.com

[Derrick Rice]

> I'm sorry I didn't learn of this community organizing effort sooner.  How have you reached out to people? 

Nothing to apologize for! I had been reticent to share this on the DSNC list, for the sake of avoiding introducing discussion that is at best tangentially related to the core mission of DSNC. Folks have strong opinions on body worn cameras (or pretty much anything policing related) and I did not want to instigate debate that might become counter productive to preserving the peace of the list or might be disrespectful of folks time & attention. While I'm always eager to engage in these sorts of conversations wherever and whenever, I have found that's not typical.

In terms of how we've reached out to people: largely organically, via word of mouth and asking folks to sign up for future updates here. Social media is deeply flawed and the fabric of community in Somerville is fragmented and layered (not a critique, just an observation). There are so few community news organizations, but they have been covering this issue a little bit e.g. https://csindie.com/?s=body+worn+cameras

Candidly, I think it's an indictment of the city's [lack of] commitment to public engagement that they didn't do a more thorough public engagement campaign on this issue. They have the resources to do it well. It's one of the chief complaints that I and my co-organizers have raised. A study of police staffing and operations in 2023 called for a thorough public engagement process, and none of that happened. The only such engagement event was last night's public hearing, the same night as the mayor demanded a vote from the council. Hardly a two-way conversation at that point.

While yesterday's city council meeting settled the issue (approved narrowly, 6 to 5), we will still be providing at least one more update. Go ahead and sign up here to receive it!

- Derrick Rice (he/him)

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