When it comes to body woren cameras (BWC) and cruiser mounted cameras (CMC), all municipal police departments do things differently. Most cities and towns equip their police with at least one of the two camera types. There are a few outdated departments, like mine in East Longmeadow, that have neither.
Additionally, each department has its own policy for when and how the cameras are used. So it’s not possible for me to cover all police camera procedures throughout the state. Instead, in this post I’ll focus exclusively on the Massachusetts State Police policy, which includes both BWC and CMC.
Generally speaking, troopers must activate their body cams whenever directly interacting with the public. Probably the only exception is when a trooper is assigned to manage a lawfully assembled crowd. If, however, potentially unlawful conduct is observed, the trooper must active his camera as soon as he reasonably can.
When a trooper activates his BWC, the camera begins its recording 30 seconds prior to activation. This feature is referred to as RATF or “Recording After the Fact.” According to the general order regulating state police camera use,
RATF captures events that occur while the camera system is powered on, even if not actively recorded by a member [i.e., trooper]. This is a limited ability to retrieve an event that was not originally classified as a recorded event.
A trooper using a BWC should, whenever practicable, notify those who are being recorded of the camera’s presence. Nevertheless, the trooper is under no obligation to turn off the BWC at the citizen’s request.
Additionally, troopers may activate their BWC when inside a person’s residence solely to record their interaction with a potential suspect or witness. They may not, however, use a BWC to help gather information about the residence or conduct an inventory within the premises.
Like BMCs, cruiser mounted cameras must be activated whenever troopers engage the public. These cameras can be activated by the trooper manually or they can be triggered by a number of events which include:
- activation of emergency lights,
- siren use,
- gun/rifle rack opening,
- crash detection,
- dog door opening.
The CMC recording begins 1 minute prior to the camera’s activation.
These cameras typically do not record audio. However, if the trooper is simultaneously using a BWC, the BWC audio may be synced with the CMC video.
With some exceptions, BWC and CMC recordings are accessible to the public through the state’s public records law.
The state police camera policy is attached below: