The body-camera pilot program for Boston’s police was supposed to begin last week, with voluntary participation from 100 officers. But according to the city, no officers signed up—so Boston decided to force 100 officers to take part.
That shift—from a voluntary to a mandatory program—brought attorneys for the city and the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association to Suffolk Superior Court Tuesday. An attorney for the BPPA, which represents the city’s patrolmen, urged Judge Douglas Wilkins to issue a temporary injunction that would prevent the pilot program’s launch until the union and the city can hash out their differences in arbitration.
Under friendly questioning, BPPA president Patrick Rose said he’d supported the pilot program and continued to do so, and that his primary concern was guaranteeing that the original agreement with the city—which was reached via collective bargaining—was respected.
“I’ll stand here until this building freezes over,” Rose said at one point. “I have never not supported the camera program.”
But an attorney representing the city offered a starkly different picture—casting Rose’s support for the pilot program as tepid at best, and suggesting that some in the union actively worked to dissuade officers from volunteering.
Boston Police Commissioner Bill Evans also testified Tuesday. He described his personal evolution on the body-camera question, saying he’d moved from lukewarm interest to a conviction that cameras are a vital policing tool.
While Boston has “the best police department in the country,” Evans said, the city is “one incident away” from a blow-up if a lethal police shooting occurs that isn’t captured on video.
Neither Rose nor Evans spoke with the media after the hearing recessed at 4 pm. But Carl Williams, an attorney with the ACLU of Massachusetts, did, saying he’s unconvinced by Rose’s claim that the BPPA has always supported the body-camera trial.
“There have been some articles in Pax Centurion, the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association newsletter, [with] narratives like 'Police are under siege,' 'There’s a war on cops,” Williams said.
The hearing is scheduled to resume Wednesday at 9 AM. Wilkins says he plans to issue a ruling by Friday, three days before the pilot program’s newly scheduled start date.
