The Riverhead Police Department has been awarded a state technology grant of more than $1.47 million to cover the cost of body-worn cameras for officers.
Riverhead’s grant funding was part of $127 million to Long Island police departments and sheriffs’ offices announced this morning by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Police Chief David Hegermiller informed the Town Board of the grant award during this morning’s work session.
The grant funding will cover the purchase of body-worn cameras for every officer on the police force, Hegermiller said in an interview after the meeting.
Deploying body-worn cameras was part of the Riverhead Police Department’s “Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative Plan,” developed in response to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s June 12, 2020 executive order mandating the adoption of a police reform plan by all law enforcement jurisdictions in the state by April 1, 2021. The Town Board unanimously adopted the plan on March 29, 2021.
The purchase and deployment of body-worn cameras were one part of the 96-page plan, which was developed with community input. The item was tagged as a long-term goal, expected to require 5 to 6 years to attain.
Hegermiller said the department submitted its grant application to the state last year. He called the award “very good news.”
“We were the second-largest grant in Suffolk County,” Hegermiller said. Only Suffolk County Police got a bigger award, snaring more than $7 million in funding.
The chief said the grant will cover the purchase of cameras for 100 officers, as well as the equipment necessary to receive and store video.
The town will pay a technology stipend with police unions in connection with the use of body-worn cameras, as other departments in the local region have done, Hegermiller said. The stipend amount has not yet been negotiated, he said.
Riverhead Police officers are in favor of having body-worn cameras, Hegermiller said. “I think they are actually more beneficial to police than to the public,” he said.
According to a primer on body-worn cameras published in 2016 by the National Institute of Justice, body-worn cameras came into use by law enforcement agencies in the United States in response to the national attention drawn by the shooting of Michael Brown, 18, by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 and the death of Freddie Gray, 25, in Baltimore, Maryland in 2015, from injuries sustained while in police custody.
Discrepancies in eyewitness accounts prompted calls for police officers to be outfitted with the cameras, according to the NIJ primer.
“The premise is that BWCs [body-worn cameras] will help capture a record of police-involved incidents and provide increased transparency and legitimacy,” the document states. “Other perceived benefits of implementing BWCs include: improved behavior for both police officers and citizens; expedited resolution of complaints and lawsuits; improved evidence for arrest and prosecution; and opportunities for police training.”
The New York governor said in a press release this morning that public safety is her top priority.
“We are continuing to make record investments in law enforcement so they have the resources they need to protect our communities,” Hochul said. “By investing in the latest technology and equipment, we’re responding to the requests of law enforcement agencies as they look to safeguard the future of our state.”
The survival of local journalism depends on your support.
We are a small family-owned operation. You rely on us to stay informed, and we depend on you to make our work possible. Just a few dollars can help us continue to bring this important service to our community.
Support RiverheadLOCAL today.
