Dear Campus Community,
As we resume on-campus activities and in-person classes, please be aware that university police officers are now wearing body cameras. All uniformed patrol officers are equipped with the body worn cameras and will wear them at all times while on duty. The body worn camera program is designed to enhance community relations, transparency and accountability. It will also help to deter or document inappropriate conduct by officers or members of the public should it occur, while capturing digital audio/video evidence for criminal, civil and traffic related cases. These recordings will also assist with officer training.
While officers will not record every interaction, there are several types of interactions in which they are required to activate their cameras, including but not limited to vehicle stops, investigative stops, crowd control incidents, any adversarial interaction, use of force incidents, and incidents when requested to record by a citizen. There are other instances in which an encounter may be recorded at the discretion of the officer. In the event that a member of the community asks the officer to discontinue the recording, the officer will attempt to honor the request, but they are not required to if the encounter is already adversarial, likely to escalate, or the officer believes there is an operational benefit to continuing the recording.
Body worn cameras are becoming more prevalent in Massachusetts and around the country. The university police department is fortunate to be one of only two state universities in the Commonwealth implementing a body worn camera program at this time. We firmly believe that it will serve to enhance transparency, while improving community relations and our operational capabilities.
I want to thank our university police officers for their collaboration as we move forward with this new program.
Sincerely,
Gene Labonte
Assistant Vice President for Public Safety and Risk Management
Chief of Police