George Floyd’s 2020 murder at the hands of Minneapolis police changed the way America thinks about policing. We only know what happened because an iPhone video captured the nearly 8 minutes a police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck.
The movement to hold police more accountable was spurred into action and as part of that national reckoning, Massachusetts lawmakers passed a landmark law aimed at bringing accountability and increased oversight to police departments.
One outcome of both Floyd’s murder and the reform movement has been the call for the use of police body cameras. So far, no local department on the Vineyard has taken up the cause. That is, until last week, when the Edgartown Police Department told The Times it was pursuing a five-year program to outfit their officers with body cameras.
Chief Bruce McNamee, in his comments, said he understands that the technology is inevitable with a society calling for accountability, but he hastens to add that it can also help document what he sees as the high level of professionalism that his officers carry out every day.
We are encouraged that the Edgartown police department is moving forward with the proposal for body cameras, and are asking for funding to do so. It’ll be up to town elected officials and voters to support the department, and we hope they do. We also hope that this sets a new standard for the other Island towns.
While Edgartown is known more as a quaint, picturesque harbor than as a tough, hotbed for crime or police misconduct, body cameras are still an important tool for increasing transparency of law enforcement. They can also help officers who may be wrongfully charged with misconduct; and better yet, it could help to boost morale for a profession that often seems under siege these days.
To the benefits: the most obvious is police accountability. Police officers are trusted with an extraordinary amount of power. They have the authority to make arrests, they can hold a gun to a suspect, they can drive at high speeds. Having faith in the officers and the institution that can do this important work — which has been tarnished across the nation by rogue officers like the ones in Minneapolis who killed Floyd— is critical to the idea of policing. Holding officers accountable to their actions will help to restore that faith in policing, and using any tools available to increase transparency and increase accountability is critically important.
A case in point where police body cameras may have helped bring clarity to a confusing instance and possibly help the public’s perception of the police recently occurred in Tisbury. Consider the claims by a former Vineyard Haven man who had been arrested for threatening police in 2022. He recently filed a civil case against Tisbury police in October, saying that he was emotionally distressed after being arrested. He is representing himself in the case and claims that he is owed compensation for the wrongdoing. Meanwhile, the Tisbury department maintains that there was no issue when the suspect was arrested, that they were just doing their job. Footage of the actual arrest would be invaluable in bringing clarity to the two different versions of what happened, and would help the public evaluate if this was bad policing, a misunderstanding, or perhaps someone with an ax to grind.
There is no question that there are benefits to the body cameras, but we also note that there are valid questions about who chooses when the footage should be released to the public.
There have been reports around the country that they aren’t exactly working as intended. The New York Times recently reported that since the murder of Floyd and the adoption of body cameras across the country, there have been numerous bureaucratic obstructions to videos getting released to the public.
As an example, the New York Police Department — the largest in the world — promised in 2020 to release body camera video within 30 days of a “critical incident.” To date, the New York Times reports that out of nearly 400 of those incidents, the department has released the footage within a month just twice. The study also found that the footage of deadly encounters across the country were not being released as frequently as the public deserves.
The problem, seemingly, comes down to who controls the footage. Police have been the ones that make the recordings. Should they also be the ones to decide if the public sees the footage or not?
We advise Edgartown — and other Vineyard towns considering the cameras — to come up with a clear policy for when and how to release the data, and whose decision it should be. Perhaps more fitting than a police chief, the town’s select board — an elected body meant to look out for the public’s interests — should be the ones to decide how and when videos are released. Or a police civilian oversight committee. A police chief may be more inclined to protect their department or their officers than to uphold the transparency that the cameras afford. Not that we don’t trust Island chiefs, but they shouldn’t be put in the position of choosing between protecting their officers and providing the public with information it has a right to know.
In Edgartown, there will likely be fiscal conservatives who push back at the proposal, saying it’s too expensive. McNamee estimates that the cost will be just under $150,000. To us, that does not seem like too high a price to pay for transparency and accountability, and we also note that there are state grants available for departments to pursue funding.
Oak Bluffs has already approved funding for a similar body camera proposal; why the department did not pursue the purchase of the cameras is unclear. We suggest that the department seriously consider the idea, and that Edgartown continue to push forward with its proposal..
Providing transparency to the public on how officers — our public servants — do their jobs is paramount; and that is why we deserve to know if they are doing their jobs well. Making an investment in the much-needed tools to make that possible is an easy choice.
