© 2024 Maine Public | Registered 501(c)(3) EIN: 22-3171529
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Scroll down to see all available streams.

Deadly Shooting Prompts Calls for Portland Police to Speed up Purchase of Body Cameras

After a police officer shot and killed a man in Portland this weekend, advocacy groups are calling for the city to speed up its timeline on buying and using police body cameras.

Steven Biel with Progressive Portland, a group joined by the ACLU of Maine in calling for the change, says the City Council has budgeted $400,000 for body cameras starting in fiscal year 2019. But he says the shooting of 22-year-old Chance David Baker by Sgt. Nicholas Goodman illustrates why police need body cameras sooner.

“We have no idea whether or not lethal force was absolutely necessary in this case, and it’s way too early and it would be irresponsible to speculate. But what is clear is that if we had police body cameras, all of us would know a lot more about what happened from start to finish,” he says. “We know that eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable. By having body cameras we could have a reliable account from the beginning to the end of what happened.”

And Biel says it’s not about placing blame.

“We’re not accusing police of doing the right or wrong thing here,” he says. “We think anytime lethal force is used, there should be a clear record so the community and the police officer involved can have a record of exactly what happened.”

Witnesses to the shooting on Saturday say Baker was brandishing a pellet gun which he’d just bought at the strip mall where he was killed.

The attorney general’s office is investigating the shooting, and the police department says it wont comment on the shooting until the investigation is complete, which could be several weeks.

The Office of the Chief of Police wasn’t available for comment on the push to start using body cameras sooner. South Portland Police began using them Jan. 20.

Correction: The victim is Chance David Baker, not Chase David Baker.

Nora is originally from the Boston area but has lived in Chicago, Michigan, New York City and at the northern tip of New York state. Nora began working in public radio at Michigan Radio in Ann Arbor and has been an on-air host, a reporter, a digital editor, a producer, and, when they let her, played records.