Boston Police Commissioner William B. Evans announced last week that because there were no volunteers, police officers would be chosen to participate in a six-month test of body cameras. The initiative had been held up for months by union negotiations and a lack of volunteers. The pilot program will start in September. As reported in the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald, the executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice, Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, expressed concern about the over-representation of officers of color, and the exclusion of officers who work in Latino neighborhoods.
As the Globe reported: “a lot of the needs of Latino immigrant populations have been unmet,” Espinoza-Madrigal said. “The police-community interactions in East Boston should also be subject to public scrutiny by body cameras.” Body cameras worn by police officers in East Boston would help show whether there is “a positive and constructive experience” between police and members of the community, “and more importantly, to make sure that there is no implicit biases or cultural competency barriers that may influence the interaction between Latinos and police officers in East Boston.”
As the Herald reported: “heavily Hispanic and immigrant East Boston was excluded,” Espinoza-Madrigal said. “Cultural and linguistic barriers can manifest themselves during police interactions,” and “we should be closely monitoring the policing that is happening in this particularly diverse community. The exclusion of East Boston is deeply problematic.”
In both the Globe and Herald, our executive director raised concerns about the over-representation of racial and ethnic minorities in the pilot program compared with the number of minority officers on the force. According to a 2015 Police Department Operational Audit, 66% of the officers in the Boston Police Department are white, 23% are black, 9% are Latino, and 2% are Asian. However, 55% of the officers tapped to participate in the pilot program are white, 29% are black, 13% are Latino, and 3% are Asian, according to data provided by the police department.
The Boston Herald editorial board published a separate editorial on the body cameras noting the Lawyers’ Committee’s concerns with the exclusion of East Boston from the pilot program.