Mass. PDs to receive over $3M in grants for body cameras

By John L. Micek
masslive.com

BOSTON — Fifty-two police departments across Massachusetts will share in more than $3.6 million in state grant money to pay for new body cameras, Gov. Maura Healey’s office said Tuesday.

The infusion will “[strengthen] police-community relations,” the Democratic governor said in a statement of the money awarded through the state’s Law Enforcement Body-Worn Camera Program, which is now in its third year.

“These grants provide local police agencies with resources to implement technology that while improving investigations and advancing the fundamental principles of transparency and accountability,” Healey said.

The new round of funding will underwrite both the purchase of body cameras and data storage of the footage generated by those cameras.

At a legislative hearing earlier this year, county prosecutors told lawmakers that the proliferation of cameras was overloading the statewide network that handles the footage, WBUR reported.

State officials said last year that 10% of the Bay State’s municipal police department have a body-worn camera program. And three-quarters of departments in big cities and smaller towns were interested in starting such a program, WBUR reported, citing survey data compiled by the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association.

The cameras “provide law enforcement agencies with an important tool to improve training and advance best practices,” state Secretary of Public Safety and Security Terrence Reidy said in the administration’s statement.

“As a growing number of departments launch or expand body-worn camera programs, this funding has become a vital resource for police departments across the state,” Reidy said.

These are the police departments that received grants:

• Acton Police Department: $135,751
• Adams Police Department: $110,464
• Arlington Police Department: $60,017
• Auburn Police Department: $93,945
• Barnstable Police Department: $151,907
• Belchertown Police Department: $58,705
• Berlin Police Department: $10,000
• Bernardston Police Department: $15,960
• Bourne Police Department: $61,482
• Bridgewater Police Department: $250,000
• Brookline Police Department: $250,000
• Clinton Police Department: $160,248
• Fall River Police Department: $7,400
• Framingham Police Department: $211,300
• Goshen Police Department: $26,050
• Grafton Police Department: $6,651
• Granville Police Department: $39,230
• Hinsdale Police Department: $52,636
• Holbrook Police Department: $92,587
• Holliston Police Department: $75,200
• Kingston Police Department: $50,000
• Lanesborough Police Department: $39,700
• Lawrence Police Department: $249,928
• Leicester Police Department: $13,099
• Littleton Police Department: $150,047
• Marion Police Department: $42,530
• Methuen Police Department: $26,029
• Nahant Police Department: $3,980
• New Bedford Police Department: $250,000
• North Adams Police Department: $21,015
• North Reading Police Department: $134,688
• Northfield Police Department: $7,670
• Orange Police Department: $14,512
• Rockland Police Department: $167,124
• Salem Police Department: $13,096
• Sherborn Police Department: $73,650
• Shrewsbury Police Department: $20,895
• Southborough Police Department: $16,064.00
• Sudbury Police Department: $27,787
• Sutton Police Department: $69,624
• Warwick Police Department: $8,940
• West Bridgewater Police Department: $74,813
• Whatley Police Department: $4,197
• Winchendon Police Department: $12,490
• Yarmouth Police Department: $7,220

“Body-worn cameras are a transformative tool that promotes police transparency and accountability, enhances community trust, and positively impacts the quality of investigations,” Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said. “These grants underscore our Administration’s commitment to creating safer communities and supporting municipalities with the resources needed to deliver exemplary police services.”

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