Police body cam plan approved

Boynton Beach will spend more than half a million dollars to equip police officers with body cameras, a move the department says will improve accountability among officers and the public.

City commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved the purchase of 160 body cameras and a five-year subscription to evidence.com, a storage site for all video from the cameras.

The $561,783 program touts increased transparency, improved police behavior measured through citizen complaints and use of force incidents, and expedited resolution of complaints, according to city documents. The technology can also serve as a

training tool, documents say.

Eighty officers will receive two cameras: one onduty camera and one offduty camera, Police Chief Jeffrey Katz said Tuesday.

The move was met with support from city officials and the public. Katz said officers are excited about getting the cameras.

“This program serves as a tremendous defense for baseless complaints,” he said at the commission meeting. “[The cameras] are good for accountability from a police standpoint and a public standpoint.”

Commissioner Joe Casello said the program could help alleviate issues such as tensions between police and the public in the wake of Corey Jones’ 2015 murder by then-plainclothes officer Nouman Raja, and Byron Harris’ alleged 2014 beating by police that was captured by Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s helicopter footage and sparked an FBI investigation.

Harris sued the city for $600,000 in October. Harris, who allegedly hit an officer while he was fleeing a traffic stop, still faces charges of aggravated battery on an officer, fleeing and alluding, leaving the scene of a crash and attempted second-degree murder.

The collision severed the officer’s spine in two places, caused him to lose part of his ear and left his face permanently disfigured, Katz said at a news conference last year.

Documents released Tuesday include a recording of Jones’ call to roadside assistance and his last words to Raja, followed by the sound of five gunshots.

Jones had been stranded along a highway off-ramp in the middle of the night when Raja shot him to death.

Raja, 39, is charged in state court with manslaughter by culpable negligence and attempted first-degree murder with a firearm.

Jones’ uncle Kenneth Banks on Tuesday asked the commissioners to strongly support the body camera program so that others don’t have to experience his family’s grief.

“The worst thing is not knowing what happened. If every municipality can have these cameras, it’s a great relief when you lose a loved one,” he said. “Transparency is the thing we need, and when you have a camera, the camera don’t lie.”

The cameras are scheduled to go live in March, with training beginning in February.