Officials in Springfield, Massachusetts are asking for more time as they hash out new language on an agreement allowing the police department access to public school cameras
After public listening sessions and subcommittee debates, the Springfield School Committee is getting closer to approving a new memorandum of understanding with the police department – so close, it seemed like one might be voted on Tuesday night.
“We had a lot of community engagement, a lot of activity, a lot of questions, a lot of concerns, and I was really pleased with the fact that our attorneys really worked diligently to make sure that we created a document that was not just about equity, but also transparency and really, speaking to the fullness of the process, to ensure that everyone is safe, and that we're able to do what is necessary to keep our schools safe as well as our community safe,” said School Committee Vice Chair LaTonia Monroe-Naylor.
The previous MoU, dating back to 2021, was an interdepartmental agreement between Springfield Public Schools and police. In it were ground rules for how and when certain members of Springfield PD can access exterior and interior SPS cameras, plus recordings and still images.
In most cases, only the police department’s civilian-staffed Real Time Crime Analysis or Video Analyst teams that can access the feeds, though officers and supervisors responding to or investigating an “incident believed to be depicted on such images and recordings” can also review them.
Non-emergency situations require “prior written approval” from SPS for accessing interior cameras, and no stills or video can be used for any purpose “other than law enforcement,” according to the MoU.
During what’s considered a “public safety emergency situation,” though, the aforementioned parties can access feeds, while being required to notify SPS as soon as possible afterwards.
The MoU’s language and stipulations were brought up as concerns by students during a listening session, as well as accessibility - both in terms of the level of camera access the police department had, as well as access to a copy of the MoU itself, said to be hard to find by some at the Nov. 14 meeting.
Some committee members weren’t crazy about the previous agreement, either – input that led to a revised MoU going before a subcommittee in late January.
Ian Keefe, providing legal counsel for the school committee, outlined some of those changes during last month’s meeting, including a request from students to add clear definitions.
“I did outline some definitions, made a definition section,” “I tried to encapsulate what a public safety emergency would be, or what a non-emergency law enforcement investigation purpose [would be], what a bona fide law enforcement purpose would be characterized [as],” he said at the Jan. 29 meeting, touching on various terms that appear in the ’21 memorandum. “I also wanted to lay out who the people were that were viewing the video. So, that would be the civilians at RTC and then the civilian/officer SPD Video Analyst unit.”
Revisions also appeared to touch on how SPS cameras can be used for police training.
Two weeks later, the MoU was on the agenda for an approval vote – only to hit a snag. Stephen Buoniconti is Springfield’s City Solicitor.
We would be asking for a brief extension, to be able to walk through the document with [Police] Superintendent Akers, line by line, which we really haven’t been able to do,” Buoniconti said. “Superintendent Akers has been briefed orally about the project, about the MoU and the concept, and he's in full-favor of that, but as we look at the language, we start raising some questions or concerns.”
According to Buoniconti, his office had only become aware of the working document “late last week.” He says as all parties involved work to resolve any language concerns, it will likely take about two weeks more to hash things out.
Keefe was also at Tuesday’s meeting. When asked by School Committee At-Large Member Denise Hurst what problems arose, he says one of the matters concerned authorities taking screen grabs from exterior cameras - something both he and Buoniconti seemed optimistic about resolving.
“It's part of … obviously, for law enforcement purposes - if there's something … going on, like maybe someone's robbing a car right or outside of the school … or … there's a fight out there, or some criminal activity is happening, and SPD is … viewing the live access of the exterior camera, and they want to take a quick screen grab to make sure to ID that person, and then, obviously, send it out to officers who are going to be responding to the scene - it's helpful to have that picture,” he said. “And I think, from my conversation just with everybody, that's something that's that it has been a common practice, and it's binds people forward with but it wasn't really captured that well in the document, the original draft.”
The school committee opted to move its MoU vote to a future meeting in mid-March.
