Somerville passes body camera policy after contentious vote

In the end, Somerville city councillors decided to take the money. After years of back and forth on having the city’s police wear body cameras, much of which was driven by the city’s repeated failures to create a civilian oversight commission and a robust policy, the city council accepted yet another promise to create that commission and voted Monday to adopt body cams at a special meeting called by Mayor Jake Wilson.

The meeting, which was virtual, drew nearly 100 concerned residents and experts. The meeting’s public comment portion saw dozens of attendees speak against what are formally termed body-worn cameras and a separate grant from the state of $231,635 to purchase and implement the equipment. That grant money, administered by the state’s Law Enforcement Body-Worn Camera Program, must be used by Aug. 31, which was the reason Wilson called the special meeting.

The seeming rush to vote was a source of ire for public commenters.

“I am deeply frustrated by the manufactured urgency this issue has been given,” said Ally Overbey, a resident of Somerville’s Ward 2. “I understand the city would like to take advantage of this grant, but I ask them to consider, at what cost?”

Others opposed the uncertainty surrounding a civilian oversight body promised by the mayor, and the estimated annual costs of adoption.

Many also argued the city was moving too quickly and questioned whether public engagement had been sufficient.

Years of discussion

But the city has been discussing body cameras since at least 2020, when then-mayor Joseph Curtatone and Councilor Matthew McLaughlin jointly filed a resolution supporting giving the police body cameras. In 2021, the city council voted unanimously to support the resolution. Agreements were reached with the city’s two police unions to allow for the adoption of cameras, but an abridged policy – pages shorter than the current one – was shot down by the city council in 2022.

In 2025, two city task forces, Public Safety for All and Civilian Oversight, favored adopting body cameras, though Civilian Oversight wanted a commission established beforehand.

In December 2025, former mayor Katjana Ballantyne’s administration applied for the state grant after learning that the program was set to end. The Wilson administration fast-tracked negotiations with the police union in the first half of 2026; typically adopting new equipment means a raise for officers to accommodate their use of the new devices. Still, most councilors still praised what they saw as an unusual level of engagement from the mayor’s office.

It also created a position for Police Accountability Program Coordinator this year, which was included in the FY 2027 budget. A separate Body-Worn Camera Coordinator position is expected to be created when negotiations with the police unions are complete.

The votes

Under consideration were a Technology-Specific Surveillance Use Policy (TSSUP) and Surveillance Technology Impact Report (STIR). The documents, mandated by the city’s surveillance oversight ordinance, must be submitted by the mayor’s office for approval from the city council, and describe a proposed technology, its envisioned uses, the policy surrounding its implementation and related cost estimates.

The proposed body camera policy was questioned by councilors and public commenters, who pointed to aspects that did not align with a policy put forth by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). A notable exception is that officers would have access to body camera footage before writing their incident reports, excluding incidents of deadly force or serious injury.

“The policy would allow officers to figure out in what ways they could get away with bending the truth,” said Ward 5 resident Sam Alterman during public comment.

Former councilor Willie Burnley Jr. was a leading community organizer in efforts after the George Floyd murder to reimagine policing. He contended that without civilian oversight the body cameras would only “empower and enrich the police,” he said. “In this case, to the tune of thousands of dollars a year.”

Supporters said Somerville’s policy was more robust than that of neighboring cities and that this was the last best chance to adopt body cameras for the police.

Many public commenters who spoke in support of the cameras were previously members of the task forces. Marea Beeman, a Ward 3 resident and criminal defense attorney, said she had been able to use body camera footage to show conduct alleged in police reports was inaccurate.

McLaughlin and Councilor Wilfred Mbah argued that the city was behind all its neighbors in adopting body cameras, which they saw as one key to a truly progressive police department. Mbah shared his personal experience as a victim of police discrimination in Somerville. He acknowledged the cameras would not be a “silver bullet” to solve issues of police accountability, but said he did not understand delaying the vote, which would only make body cameras more expensive in the future.

Council President Lance Davis acknowledged uncertainty about how civilian oversight might work, but that the policy was good. “I did not expect when I read this for it to be anywhere near as good as it is,” he said. He voted in favor of body cameras after Wilson assured him the administration would provide the council a revised policy by the first September council meeting and focus its efforts on creating the oversight commission.

Ultimately, the council voted 7-4 to accept the TSSUP, and 6-5 to accept the STIR impact report. In addition, it voted 7-4 to accept the state grant money. Davis, Mbah and McLaughlin along with councilors Jessie Clingan, Kristen Strezo and Emily Hardt voted in favor of all three. Councilor Ben Wheeler voted in favor of the TSUPP but against the STIR and grant, while Ewen-Campen was a no on the two policy documents but a yes on the grant.

Despite his overall opposition, Ewen-Campen was “happy to accept the free money.”

He said the new policy was “a very good one” in comparison to neighboring cities and he appreciated the “administration’s willingness to work in good faith on the policy side of this.” However, he was one of several councilors concerned about the program’s cost, since the city cut 29 city staff earlier in the year to address a budget shortfall.

The grant will fully cover the purchase of 119 cameras and related charging and storage equipment, as well as subscription costs for the first year and a half of the program. The city has also negotiated a 2% increase to senior officers’ salaries to go along with the new equipment, totaling an additional cost of roughly $105,000 per year. The raise does not appear in the 2027 budget recently proposed by the city, as it is covered in its first year by the city’s Salary Wage Stabilization Fund.

That same fund will cover the first year of wage increases for patrol officers, expected to be a total of $110,000, and create a new Body-Worn Camera Coordinator position at an annual cost of $117,000.

The estimated annual costs of the program sit around $400,000, which the administration plans to offset by cutting down on the police department’s operational and overtime costs.

Now, the city will move to purchase the cameras and begin to distribute them first amongst senior officers, while also agreeing to work further with the city council to revise the documents and establishing the civilian oversight committee.

Reactions mixed

In a statement on Tuesday, Wilson applauded the result and praised the public, city council, police department and Public Safety for All Task Force. “I’m glad that Somerville will finally deliver on a long-time promise to bring this tool to the community.”

He wrote that now the work was going to be establishing a civilian oversight body.

McLaughlin issued a short statement saying “Although the vote was divided, all councilors ensured our body camera policy will be the most progressive in the state.”

Wheeler said he split his vote because of financial concerns, noted the city council still had “veto points” where it could stop the process, including votes on the patrol officers’ collective bargaining agreement and supplemental funding for the new staff member who will administer the cameras.

Derrick Rice, a Ward 3 resident who headed a petition signed by 89 registered voters to hold a public hearing on the matter – it will take place in September and is now largely procedural – said via email residents will work with the mayor, but also cautioned that Wilson would need to prove “he’s different than his predecessors.”

“I’m deeply concerned that body cams were approved based on a promise of establishing civilian oversight, when we’ve heard identical promises go unfulfilled since 2020,” Rice said.

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