With the growing discussion about the use of body cameras by police departments across the country, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has indicated his support to provide state funding for a pilot program. 

Massachusetts Senate President Stan Rosenberg is proposing a plan that will help police departments that are interested in testing out the new technology.

Baker believes it's the state's responsibility to help departments experiment with body cameras and share their findings with fellow law enforcement agencies.

"If there are communities that are interested in experimenting with this, I think the state should be wiling to partner with them and try and make it happen," Baker said. "People will learn from it and that knowledge will end up being useful to everybody else."

There is still a concern that body cameras on police officers may change the way communities interact with law enforcement. Gov. Baker says he's heard from a lot of police officers "that they're biggest worry about a body cam is that they will lose the spontaneity and the intimacy and the trust that comes from ongoing conversations that they have all the time with folks in their communities."

Several communities in the Commonwealth have already begun experimenting with body cameras, but a state grant would make it easily affordable for other departments interested.

Rosenberg told The Boston Globe he expects public hearings on his proposal later this year.

 

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