Mandating Use of Body Cameras & Establishing
Proper Usage
Origin: City Council of Boston, Massachusetts
Bill Name/Number: Ordinance 0279
Link: Click here
Summary: Introduced at the beginning of 2015, this body camera ordinance was drafted by the community
advocacy group Boston Police Camera Action Team, the Harvard Black Law Students Association, and Boston
Councilmember Charles Yancey and supported by both the NAACP and the ACLU.
Talking Points & Important Information:
• While not a panacea for community-police relations and concerns of police brutality, body and dashboard
cameras provide an additional layer of transparent accountability. Body-mounted police cameras help protect
the public against police misconduct while at the same time help protect police against false accusations of
abuse. In 2013, a researcher who undertook the first experimental evaluation of body-mounted cameras in
Rialto, California, found a 50 percent reduction in the use of force incidents with police and an 88 percent drop in
the number of civilian complaints against police officers.
• According to the Police Foundation, a voluminous body of research across various disciplines has shown that
when humans become self-conscious about being watched, they often alter their conduct. Evidence further
suggests that individuals who are aware that they are being observed often embrace socially-desirable behavior,
particularly when the observer is a rule-enforcing entity.
• On the flipside, the American Constitution Society finds that any use of police body cameras must be
accompanied by strong, stringently enforced policies and practices – particularly when it comes to preventing
surveillance of First Amendment-protected activities, safeguarding expectations of privacy in one’s own home,
honoring individual requests not to record interactions, giving notice to subjects being recorded, and deleting
footage that is not flagged for review.
2015 POLICY BOOK
LOCAL
INTRO
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