City Council unanimously approves five-year, $4M contract to buy body cameras, tasers for WPD

Cyrus Moulton, Telegram & Gazette
·2 min read

WORCESTER — The City Council Tuesday unanimously approved a five-year, $4 million contract to buy body cameras and tasers for the Worcester Police Department.

But Councilor at-Large Khrystian King and District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj expressed concern that a draft policy governing the body cameras’ use did not address some outstanding concerns.

“I’m not against the body cams. We’re simply talking about having the policy ready to us,” Haxhiaj said.

King added that he would like to see a timeline for the final policy.

“We need to get an idea of when this is going to get going,” King told the council. “They had a short, scant policy when they did the pilot some years ago, and I would like to see this moving.”

A Worcester police officer investigates a call on Shannon Street on May 1, 2019., while wearing a body camera.
A Worcester police officer investigates a call on Shannon Street on May 1, 2019., while wearing a body camera.

The contract with Axon Technologies, the maker of the equipment, will provide 300 body cameras and City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. told the council at its April 26 meeting that he hopes to see the cameras in place by September.

The contract is the latest step in a nearly decade-long process to outfit Worcester Police with body-cam technology.

The conversation first arose in 2014, prompted by former Police Chief Gary J. Gemme in the wake of controversial police incidents including the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. A pilot program ran in 2019. Since then, the city council, city administration and the community have debated considerations such as privacy concerns, funding and training for the program.

Last week, WPD Chief Steven M. Sargent presented a document for councilors that outlined the training protocol but noted that the policy governing the cameras was “in its DRAFT stage,” and not yet ready for councilors.

Councilor at-Large Thu Nguyen ordered that the motion to approve the contract be held a week to allow for the policy to be completed.

As the policy was not ready for councilors Tuesday night, King’s motion for a timeline for the policy was added to the motion to purchase the equipment.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Council approves contract to buy body cameras, tasers for WPD, but some councilors including Khrystian King still concerned