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Rochester chief ready to propose body cams for officers at next council meeting

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Rochester Police Chief Paul Toussaint, seen here in his office, will present a proposal for RPD body cams next week. (Toussaint/Rochester Voice file; (Body cam/courtesy)

ROCHESTER - Rochester Police Chief Paul Toussaint will propose at next week's City Council meeting that his department join the ranks of others that use body cameras to record officer interactions with the public, he told The Rochester Voice on Tuesday.

Toussaint said he would be making the proposal as part of this year's capital improvement budget.

Dover's City Council approved purchasing body and dashboard cameras last month.

Milton Police, meanwhile, have been using body cams for almost 10 years, with its chief, Richard Krauss, being a huge backer of the devices.

In his Feb. 11 budget address, Gov. Chris Sununu signaled his desire to aid funding for local police departments with a $1 million fund that would allow the purchase on a 50-50 cost basis. The use of video recordings by police was recommended by Sununu's Commission on Law Enforcement, Accountability, Community and Transparency.

Toussaint said he didn't want to get into the financial details of his proposal before meeting with the council directly next Tuesday.

While body cams will be part of his capital improvement budget, another type of capital - human capital - also weighs heavy on Toussaint's mind as RPD continues to operate down seven officers from where it's suppose to be.

Toussaint acknowledges that the current political narrative being pushed by some that police are systemically racist, corrupt or thuggish hasn't helped the recruiting process, but he continues to see applicants walk through the door who want to serve.

"The candidates coming in to apply are no different then ever before, there's just a lot fewer of them," he said.

He noted that the training and vetting of selected candidates is an arduous, time consuming task that can take a year from them signing up to going out on patrol.

"Recruitment is a constant battle," he said. "Right now we have two candidates at the (police) academy and two more who are coming in for interviews this week. If they get by their first interview, they still have another with the police commission, followed by an exhaustive background check and training at the state Police Academy.

Toussaint said when his 50-sworn officer department is understaffed it can be stressful, because "even though we're low on staffing, you can't relax your standards."

As far as officers' morale during the current backdrop of defund-the-police, Toussaint invoked the oft-told Patriots Coach Bill Belichick maxim "Ignore the Noise."

"Our morale doesn't hinge on the politics of the day, it hinges on our staffing levels," he asserted. "When its down morale is down; when it's up morale is up."

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