BY JESSICA TRUFANT | Wicked Local
WEYMOUTH − If someone asked Weymouth police officer Ken Murphy five or 10 years ago if he would be willing to wear a body camera during a shift, he said he would have answered "no way."
Now, Murphy said he wouldn't go to work without wearing one.
"It hasn't changed one ounce of what I do for work, and now I actually rely on it and use it as a resource," Murphy said. "If someone gets confrontational or aggressive, I say, 'Everything you're saying and doing is being recorded,' and most of the time it's a de-escalator or defuser."
Since the summer of 2021, all of Weymouth's police officers go to work wearing body cameras after the town approved spending nearly $775,000 over five years to lease the cameras, patrol car video recorders and related equipment from Georgia-based Bodyworn by Coreforce.
Weymouth is on the forefront of the trend of fitting officers with cameras, with other departments just starting to come around to the idea. Randolph and Hingham recently launched body-worn camera programs, and Hanover has a pilot program underway with plans for all officers to have cameras by July.
Chiefs in other departments, including those in Quincy, Marshfield and Braintree, said there are no imminent plans to have officers wear cameras. Of the 13 local police departments contacted, nine do not have body cameras.
Former Gov. Charlie Baker's administration in 2021 announced a five-year, $20 million investment to help implement or expand local police departments’ body-worn camera programs. So far, Hanover, Hingham and Randolph have received money through the grant to launch programs.
Elaine Driscoll, director of communications and policy for the state Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, said the state does not keep a record of which police departments have launched body-worn camera programs or plan to do so.
The Quincy Police Department will go from 58 to 75 body cameras for all officers, following approval by the City Council at Monday night’s meeting. Aldermen approved a five-year lease extension with BodyWorn by Coreforce Associates of Decatur, Ga., for body and in-car cameras.
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