Steven Senne/AP
toggle caption Steven Senne/AP
Surveillance cameras, like the one here in Boston, are used throughout Massachusetts. The state now regulates how police use facial recognition technology. Steven Senne/AP
Massachusetts lawmakers passed one of the first state-wide restrictions of facial recognition as part of a sweeping police reform law.
The new law sets limits on how police use the technology in criminal investigations. It s one of the first attempts to find middle ground when regulating this
technology, but not all privacy advocates agree that regulation is the right step.
Democratic state Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz was one of the leaders behind this push for criminal justice reform.
With new and pending police contracts containing language that will allow the City to move forward on implementing body-worn cameras for all Chelsea Police officers, this week local police officials said they were comfortable with the plan and anticipated no opposition.
Chief Brian Kyes said he and the members of the department are eager to implement the program. He said he still has to draft regulations for the cameras, and communicate expectations for their use – as well as go through the purchasing process – but is ready to get them on the street.
“I strongly believe that body-worn cameras can help improve the high-quality public service that is expected of Chelsea Police Officers which will in turn promote the actual and perceived legitimacy, impartiality and sense of procedural justice that our community relies on from the men and women of the Chelsea Police Department,” he said. “Many Police Chiefs that I know personally, both within the Commonwealth and across the
One Chelsea Police union has agreed in principle to wearing body cameras on the job, and the second union is also expected very soon to agree to the practice as well – paving the path for the Administration and Chelsea Police to begin the process of implementing body-worn police cameras for every officer.
City Manager Tom Ambrosino reported the Chelsea Police Superior Officers Union had agreed to body cameras in its most recent contract negotiation, and an ongoing negotiation with the Patrol Officers Union would also likely result in the approval of that process too.
Chelsea Police would become the first department in the area to implement the practice department-wide.
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The Chelsea Police Department and the MIT Center for Ethics and Transformative Leadership collaborated this past spring on a unique police training program looking to build empathy and compassion into implicit bias training programs.
Acting on an existing relationship with the MIT Center that was used to form the innovative Chelsea HUB model, both organizations brought the program to the Chelsea Police and three other departments for six weeks of training in how to add new tools to keep situations from escalating on the street – and to take police departments into more of a direction of community service and safeguarding.