Body cams are coming to Taunton police. Here's why, when and how much they'll cost.

TAUNTON — The Taunton Police Department is one step closer to getting body cameras.

The City Council approved, unanimously, a 5-year contract between Taunton PD and tech product company Axon.

“We believe the cameras will help the department with building trust, legitimacy and showing transparency with the community. It will assist in better prosecution of cases and resolution of incidents. We believe they will also be a de-escalating force in situations and improve officer safety,” said Taunton PD Public Information Officer Lt. Glen Jackson. 

The total cost for the five-year contract will be $905,000. 

Mayor Shaunna O’ Connell said Taunton PD and her administration have been working on securing body cameras for the city’s law enforcement for over a year. 

“We previously began negotiations with the unions because we knew we wanted to do this,” said O’Connell at the Sept. 20 City Council meeting. “The Taunton Police Department has been very proactive in putting best practices in place.”

Last year, Taunton received $162,844 in grant funding as part of state efforts to provide municipal police departments with body-worn cameras. This grant is being incorporated into payment for the five-year body cam contract.

Chief Financial Officer Patrick Dello Russo said funding for this contract over the next five years will be built into the police operating budget. 

More pot shops in Taunton?:Taunton raises cap on retail pot shops — again. Here's why they did it.

“The Mayor is committed to do this. We will find funds to do this,” said Dello Russo. 

Dello Russo also said because the body camera program will be a recurring annual expense, no American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds will be deployed as the city has been using these funds for capital and one-time expenses. 

A good deal

Sgt. John Peterson from Taunton PD explained the reason behind the five-year contract instead of a smaller one was that vendors were more willing to negotiate substantial savings through the longer contract. 

Under the contract, Axon will ensure the department is supplied with 140 cameras, video storage services and technical support at any given time.

What do you think of CORR?:Taunton-area officials with ties to 'alt-lite' group say they are not members

The five-year agreement allows the cameras to be cycled out twice with new ones during this period, meaning the department will have new cameras by the end of the contract. Essentially, this means the vendor is supplying Taunton PD with 420 cameras over the course of the lifetime of the contract. 

Peterson explained having newer cameras means more lucrative negotiations and savings with future contracts as the department may only be concerned at that point with software and digital video storage. 

Planning for the future

Dello Russo said with this body camera contract, Taunton PD will be “ahead of the curve” in comparison to other municipal departments across the Commonwealth.

Dello Russo and Peterson explained it is the department’s belief that body cameras for every municipal police department in the state will become an unfunded state mandate sooner rather than later. 

Previously, the Baker-Polito administration launched a body camera program in 2018 mandating that every Massachusetts State Trooper be fitted with one, a feat that was completed last year. This was in response to a scandal involving a trooper division, Troop E, which had numerous officers log in thousands of overtime hours without actually doing those shifts. 

Additionally, as part of a massive police reform bill passed in 2020, a Law Enforcement Body Camera Task Force was created to establish regulations and minimum requirements for use by municipal departments choosing to implement a body camera program.

Jackson confirmed that based on this task force’s recommendations, to be considered by the state legislature, officers in Taunton PD believe a mandate for all police to use body cameras is just a matter of time. Jackson also said “to date, there is no discussion of funding other than through grant awards to cover the costs of body cameras, if the legislature makes them mandatory.”

Said Dello Russo: “Better to get ahead of it when we know what’s coming.”

Peterson said the department wanted to launch its body cameras ahead of the likely state mandate so that “we will have working evidence of why our system is working.” 

This evidence, Peterson elaborates, could be provided as data to the state “so their mandate falls in line with what we show as best practices. We would be one of the few communities that can push that forward.”

Jackson said it will take six to eight weeks before the department receives all the hardware, on top of the time it takes to complete training to use the cameras and software. Deployment of the body camera program should commence in December of this year or January 2023.