Boston police officer union denied injunction to temporarily block body-worn camera test
By Dave Strausfeld, J.D.
Posted in Wolters Kluwer's WorkDayhttp://www.employmentlawdaily.com/
A union of Boston police officers was not entitled to an injunction to temporarily block implementation of a pilot program to test body-worn cameras, held a Massachusetts Superior Court judge. While the union sought the injunction to maintain the status quo during arbitration of the union’s grievance over the manner in which the body camera pilot program was implemented, the union did not show a likelihood of success on the merits of the case, especially because a Massachusetts statute grants police commissioners significant non-delegable control over officers’ uniforms and equipment. And the union did not make a showing of irreparable harm: While a recent Rand Corporation study indicated that body cameras are associated with increased assaults against police, other studies have reached different conclusions (Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, Inc. v. City of Boston.
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