The Carrboro Board of Aldermen will meet next month to discuss the suitability and cost of body-worn cameras for the Carrboro Police Department.

According to Lydia Lavelle, the mayor of Carrboro, board members are eager to receive input from residents as to whether these cameras would be a wise investment for the town.

“Our board talked about it for a long time,” stated Lavelle. “We really want to hear from the public about this.”

Lavelle noted that board members had drafted a policy for body-worn police cameras in 2015, but were forced to reconsider that policy after the ratification of House Bill 972 by state legislators.

“The [North Carolina] General Assembly, last summer, passed a policy that all departments that purchase body-worn cameras must adopt,” cited Lavelle.

That policy classifies all video footage taken by law enforcement agencies in North Carolina as private, with release authority given only to courts and the heads of those agencies.

“If and when it does get released, there’s a mechanism whereby it has to go through a court order,” explained Lavelle.

Board members have not reached a consensus on the issue due to the difficulty of reconciling the desired level of safety in Carrboro with the type of policing required to achieve it.

“The board’s really kind of split,” admitted Lavelle. “No one [is] coming down definitively one way or the other on it.”

Lavelle encouraged residents to attend the meeting, which is scheduled for February 28 at 7:30 PM in the Carrboro Town Hall.

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