This April, we learned the administration asked every city department to find budget cuts. In that same moment, we are considering adding $445K or more per year to the Somerville police budget for body-worn cameras.

I'm not at all opposed to body-worn cameras in principle; in fact, I actually like the idea. But I won't support deployment without a strong policy framework in place first. My concerns fall into two categories: accountability and cost.

Accountability

The benefit of this costly program is meant to be transparency and accountability to the public.

The issue of who controls footage is a central point. If the police department decides what gets reviewed, what gets released, and when, then the cameras serve police interests, not the public's. I could only support a policy that serves a functioning civilian oversight body with real access to footage—not advisory access, not access-upon-request, but genuine independent review authority. That body should have been operational years ago. It hasn't been, and that delay matters a lot when we're talking about standing up a program like this.

I’m also concerned about when the footage is available to officers. Officers reviewing footage before writing their reports undermines the independence of the record. The ACLU's model policy is explicit on this as well, and Somerville's own guidance early on shared this opinion. I want our policy to follow that guidance closely if not completely.

Cost

We are in a budget cycle where our mayor is asking every department to find cuts—including the schools, which are looking at a potential $1M reduction. Adding $445K or more per year to the police budget in that context requires a very clear public benefit. I have not seen evidence of this to date. Additionally, it’s not lost on me that the grant that the city council is considering barely covers the cost of the equipment. It doesn't cover the ongoing operational burden. That ongoing burden lands on a budget already under pressure.

I can’t in good conscience pit the questionable value of body-worn cameras against the very clear value of our schools.