The Cambridge Police Department Has ‘Gone Live’ With Body-Worn Cameras

The Cambridge Police Department has officially “gone live” with body-worn cameras, department leadership announced on Wednesday.

James Mulcahy, the Director of Professional Standards for the Cambridge Police Department who announced the update at a virtual meeting of the Police Review and Accountability Board, described the implementation process so far as “fairly smooth.”

“This week was a pretty historic week for the police department,” Mulcahy said. “We did finally, I know, after much discussion, debate and other conversation, officially go live with body-worn cameras for the department — which I know is a long time coming.”

Body camera training for all staff, supervisors, detectives, and patrol officers began nearly three weeks ago, when the department initially announced the plan for the rollout.

The addition of the body cameras comes two years after a Cambridge police officer shot and killed 20-year-old Boston University student Sayed Faisal. A few months following the shooting, in 2023, the Cambridge City Council called on CPD to implement body cameras. Negotiations stalled for over a year however as CPD and officer unions disputed stipends for maintenance costs.

The Police Department brought in Axon, the company from which they purchased the body cameras, to conduct training for the department.

Although the training “did a great job” of preparing officers to wear and use the body camera, according to Mulcahy, he added there will likely be challenges as the implementation continues.

“There’ll be some ups and downs in terms of getting, you know, over 250 officers, up to speed on wearing them and using them,” Mulcahy said.

Lieutenant Michael LeVecque, one of the officers now wearing a body camera, said that while the adjustment takes time, he is excited about the added transparency the cameras provide.

“We’ve generally always been recorded anyway, whether or not people explicitly recording us or on surveillance cameras,” LeVecque said. “So hopefully the body cameras will just tell the fuller picture of the story.”

PRAB chair Brendan Koscher said that the body camera implementation is “definitely something to celebrate.”

“I think, in my personal opinion, it’s a great update, and excited that we’ve made that step as a community,” Koscher said.

At the meeting, Mulcahy also updated the board on the current Police Academy class. The recruits, now nearing the final months of their training, are undergoing a range of exercises to prepare to be officers.

“Most recently, they’ve been involved in emergency vehicle operation in terms of learning how to drive the cruisers and drive under stress, and have also been doing a bunch of other fieldwork,” Mulcahy said.

These recruits are also preparing to move on to firearms training, where they will be taught how to safely handle and discharge their weapons.

Once trained, the new officers will fill in nearly 30 vacancies, a shortage that caused increased overtime shifts for CPD officers.

Director of the Cambridge Human Rights Commission Carolina Almonte announced that a new online CPD complaint form is currently live and has received two or three submissions. The board is waiting however on the completion of form translations before publicizing the form.

Following the meeting, the board moved into a private executive session to discuss a pending complaint.