BOSTON, MA — The fight over body-worn cameras has just left the courts. Now, Commissioner William Evans has a new goal in mind: mandate that Boston Police Department officers where name-tags on their uniforms.
He first confirmed those efforts to WGBH last week. The head of Boston’s largest police union has said such a move would be “unnecessary.”
In a conversation on WGBH’s “Greater Boston” program, host Jim Baude pressed Evans for other projects on which he was working with police unions, and where he might be feeling frustrated.
“Little things, like… trying to put name tags (on officers),” Evans said. “That’s one of the things I’m bargaining with (the unions) now on. And, you know, those superior officers have them. My command staff has them. But, you know, I’m working to get them on (all officers).”
In subsequent statements, BPD spokesman Lieutenant Detective Michael McCarthy told multiple news outlets the badges were meant to “increase transparency and trust.”
Evans “hopes to have name tags issued to all officers in the department and is working with the remaining two unions… toward that goal,” he said, noting that command staff members are already wearing name tags.