Petition urging New Bedford police to use body cameras gets thousands of signatures

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (WLNE) – A petition is circulating New Bedford to get city police officers to wear body cameras while on duty and in days its gotten thousands of signatures.

A New Bedford High School graduate who wishes to remain anonymous created the petition titled “Require on-duty police officers to use body-worn cameras in New Bedford.” As of Monday afternoon, it had nearly 9,000 signatures.

“We demand change,” the petition reads. “The people of New Bedford are devastated by and terrified of the ongoing examples of police-inflicted violence across the country. We ask the city of New Bedford to take an active role in creating a transparent justice system to protect our community. On-duty police officers should be required to use body-worn cameras at all times. We are asking you to publicize your stance on body-worn cameras and disclose if/how you plan to implement them.”

The petition comes after weeks of protests around the country following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Police officer Derek Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder in his death.

“Our goal here with getting body cameras on our officers is a lot more than just wearing them, but building a policy in which they respect the community members at all times, and if they don’t, enforced repercussions need and will be placed,” said Monique Onuoha, a leader of the Black Lives Matter movement in New Bedford.

Onuoha, who has helped lead the Black Lives Matter protests in the city for ten days, said she’s for body cameras on officers, but wants to see more.

“I do agree that we do absolutely need body cameras, but we also need policies and laws that enforce that if those body cameras aren’t on then there’s repercussions. If those body cameras die, repercussions.”

Fellow BLM organizer Lynea Gilreath agreed, saying she hopes body camera footage will also become more accessible.

“We need to add a policy that we need to see the footage. Why does it take so long for the footage to come to the public? We should see the footage within a week, within two weeks. We shouldn’t have to wait for trial,” said Gilreath.

New Bedford’s police chief Joseph Cordeiro responded to the petition in a statement, saying he’s for the use of body cameras.

“I am an advocate for the use of body cameras for all officers and strongly encourage legislation for the use of and implementation by every department. It should be an industry standard,” wrote Chief Cordeiro.

The New Bedford Police Union and the New Bedford City Council did not respond to our request for comment.

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