The police department said in a news release Tuesday that all the officers were trained before they started wearing the devices. The patrol union filed an injunction in civil court August 26 arguing the city violated an agreement with the union by assigning 100 officers to wear the devices after no officers volunteered to participate.
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Police union president Patrick M. Rose emphatically denied the union was against the body-camera program, and said no efforts were made by the union to discourage officers from volunteering after an agreement was met.
A union lawyer says the injunction request seeks to stop the city from implementing the program until the two sides can renegotiate.
Activists around the country have called for police body cameras since the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, followed by a succession of other police shootings of unarmed black men.
The union’s lawyer, John Becker, said the city was conducting an experiment with the body cameras and “using our officers to do it”.
Speaking outside of court Wednesday, Rose said the dispute had nothing to do with body cameras, which he said he and his union support. The union is arguing the city violated its agreement – inked July 12 – because the pilot was supposed to be voluntary.
Evans said after the hearing that it was unfortunate the whole thing had to go to court.
Evans said he would not retract his mandate to officers chosen for the program.
Boston’s attorney Kay Hodge said the city used its lawful power to move forward and “at the end of the day [Evans] had the authority to assign regardless of the agreement”.
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“The video helped us keep the city calm”, he said. Judge Douglas Wilkins said he expects to make a decision on the injunction by Friday.
