Once again I would like to thank everyone for signing this petition, and being a supporter of cameras on our police.

I have noticed as of the last few days instead of getting 50+ supports we have only received a handful. To go against the Portsmouth Police Commission, we are going to need a lot more. I ask of you to share our petition, tell your friends and family about it. If our own city won't hold police accountable, it is up to us to make it happen. There are also a few things I want to go over below, which may help people understand why these body cameras are so necessary.

I will start by addressing the pros to body cameras, including dash cameras - and then debunk the PPC's (Portsmouth Police Commission) "cons" as they see them.

These cameras have been shown to cause reduced use of force during officer encounters, reduced citizen complaints, increased officer productivity, and improved judicial / court outcomes. All those reasons, and the obvious police accountability - keeping officers under scrutiny for their actions is a must if they are to provide a truly safe place for us all to live. 

The PPC has three talking points as to why they do no want cameras. Firstly - they argue money - to quote Joe Onosko " cameras would be a complete waste of money". We are talking about 0.1% of the city's entire budget in a fiscal year, 1% of the PPD's budget. That is nothing to them, considering they are spending possible over $20M on a new PD, spent over a quarter million on drones, not counting paying officers to train to use them. So that argument, is terrible. They also hire 70 police officers, which I think our city of 22k citizens could do without. Nationwide, the rate of sworn officers is 2.4 per 1,000 inhabitants. That would make portsmouth - if hiring the average needed amount of officers - at around 53 officers. Not 70.

The PPC's second argument is "citizen privacy" which makes little sense. There is no need to for the footage to be used unless a crime or officer involved incident has taken place. Even after that, the footage is rarely used in public hearings, and if it is the faces of those involved can be blocked with relative ease and face tracking software. Another non-issue. Either way I believe most people would rather have a little less privacy, if it means complete police accountability, and less risk of violence, or a "he said she said" complex.

The PPC's third major argument, is that there are "not enough complaints"... Yes really, they argue against cameras because people don't complain enough. The touted low number of complaints in Portsmouth the PPC will have you believe, is very misleading. Citizens are much more unlikely to file police related complaints without the evidence that body cameras provide, as the officer is assured safety and believability over any citizen. As things stand it truly is a "he said she said" type of policing we have, and it needs to stop.

In closing, we demand accountability. Portsmouth is better than this, and the reasons to provide cameras far outweigh their presumed "cons". It is unfair to every citizen, and creates a dangerous dynamic with police. We are at this moment over 800 strong - and we are complaining PPC. Enough is enough. Accountability First Portsmouth, NH!