The Police Accountability Bill passed in Connecticut last year had a requirement that all local law enforcement agencies be fully equipped with body cameras and dashboard cameras by July 1 of this year — a mandate that Newtown had beaten to the punch by a long shot, having been equipped with cameras since 2017.

Police Commission Chairman Joel Faxon said that Newtown was “at the forefront” of bringing the technology to the department under former Chief of Police James Viadero.

“We started back when the federal government began giving grants for the acquisition of these,” said Faxon, who said the first cameras the department had were “early tech” and that the cameras had “obviously evolved since then.”

Faxon said the cameras are a “critical piece of law enforcement technology” and confirm the actions of an officer and provide documentation of what an officer does. Faxon said the footage can be used as a training tool and can be used as evidence in court.

“It provides an objective, high definition presentation of what occurred on a call,” said Faxon. “It leaves no question on what transpired. What we want is total transparency.”

Faxon said one of the most important parts was to “support and confirm the appropriateness of the actions of an officer.”

The police commission chairman pointed to a study of body camera footage from Newtown police officers, presented to the commission in February 2022, which reviewed body cam footage from the department over a two-month period, and found that the department’s interactions were “overwhelmingly positive” and that the officers were “doing a fantastic job,” according to Dr James McCabe, a professor at Sacred Heart University and former New York City police officer that conducted the study.

Captain Bryan Bishop said that the department has 47 body cameras — one per officer as well as “a couple spares,” and all marked vehicles have dashboard cameras. Unmarked administrative and detective vehicles do not have dashboard cameras.

“The cameras provide the officer’s perspective of an incident,” said Bishop. “The officers have had them for a while so they’re used to them.”

The department’s body cameras were shifted over to products from a company called Axon following that company buying out the company the town previously purchased from. Panasonic provided the department’s dashboard cameras and mobile data terminals.

Bishop also pointed to McCabe’s study, which showed “the officers are doing their job and doing it well.”

“The officers here are very conscientious and very well trained,” said Bishop. “Time and again, the study showed, no surprise, that the officers were doing what they were supposed to do.”

The Police Accountability Act, HB 6004, is requiring all sworn members of Connecticut law enforcement and members who perform police duties to wear body cameras starting July 1. The requirement is a piece of the full act, which was passed in 2020.

Associate Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.