GREENFIELD — The Greenfield Police Department expects to have its new body camera program rolled out as soon as Sept. 1.
“This is something we’ve been working toward for the last … three years,” said acting Police Chief William Gordon, noting that a $66,000 grant awarded last year from the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security supported the purchase of the cameras and related equipment. “We’re happy to have this without needing to go to (City Council) or use local tax money.”
Gordon said the program will “change the culture of law enforcement and provide a service for the Police Department for years to come.” All officers are expected to be trained and wearing the cameras by later next week.
“The body cameras give us a lot more capability than the cruiser camera,” he said. “The body cameras stay with the officers, and the cruiser cameras just look out the windshield and into the backseat.”
The warranty for the cruiser cameras will expire next year, but the department plans to continue using the devices until they’re eventually phased out, he added.
Police Lt. Todd Dodge said while the body cameras have been purchased, the entirety of the $66,000 grant hasn’t been spent.
“We want to figure out what sort of attachment mechanisms the officers prefer,” he said, speaking to future purchases with the grant funding. “Because we have a variety of uniforms, it’s going to be dependent on that.”
Before buying the equipment, the department had to agree on a camera usage policy that also needed approval from the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.
Dodge said the company the Police Department chose to buy from, Galaxy Integrated Technologies Inc., was selected with the goal of continuing the program in the future using a cloud-based system. Currently, video footage is saved on a server-based system, as was required for the purchase of the equipment through the grant.
“They were the cheapest in terms of a cloud-based system as we move forward,” Dodge noted.
The switchover, he explained, would take place at the end of the current five-year warranty on the hardware and would require a conversation between the department and the city as far as how the body camera program would continue to be funded.
“We have the infrastructure in place and everything we need,” Dodge said. “It’s a relatively easy switchover.”
Dodge emphasized that the footage captured on the cameras cannot be altered.
“Once they’re on the server, we can move them; we just can’t alter them in any way, shape or form,” he said.
The body cameras can also be used as a useful training tool, Dodge said. In reviewing interactions with the community, as well as prisoner transports and other daily tasks caught on dashboard cameras, video footage has been used to help officers “tailor responses so we’re in line with … our policies and practices.”
“I think we’ve really tightened our ship, and I think we can only get better,” he said.
The addition of the body cameras, Dodge added, will — in the simplest terms — help to establish and maintain trust between police officers and the community.
“The community absolutely needs to trust the police,” Dodge said. “And we like to trust the community. This really pushes to make everybody accountable for their actions.”
Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne.