Superintendent-in-Chief William Gross and seven other members of the Boston Police Department's command staff have volunteered to be trained and equipped with body cameras.
Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said he asked members of his command staff to volunteer to wear the cameras to demonstrate the department's willingness to explore the new policing tool and to show support for those officers assigned to participate in the pilot program.
"When I asked members of my command staff to volunteer to wear the cameras, they all stepped up," Evans said in a statement. "I have the best department in the country and I am committed to getting this program started for the benefit of the commuity and my officers out there every day."
All eight command staff members will wear the body cameras while out in the community responding to incidents and overseeing special events. They will be bound by the same policy in place for the officers and will wear them for the duration of the pilot program, Evans said.
The Boston Police Patrolmen's Association went to court earlier this week to fight the program calling for 100 officers to wear body cameras. A pilot program was originally scheduled to start last week.
The union has asked for an injunction to halt the program until a new agreement can be reached. The judge in the case is expected to rule on the matter on Friday.
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.
