New Haven Independent

At a meeting of the Board of Aldermen’s Public Safety Committee Wednesday evening at City Hall, committee chairman Alexander Rhodeen (pictured) of Fair Haven Heights said that although Tasers without cameras may cost half as much, the risk is not worth it.

“With the deliberate roll-out, training and the presence of cameras, slowly the community is becoming more supportive, and I don’t want to lose that because of an incident tied to a Taser without a camera,” he said.

Police Chief James Lewis previously testified that the cameras are “a gimmick” and offer little real value. He invited the aldermen to come see tapes from the cameras as proof.

Members of the committee present Wednesday night — Rhodeen, East Shore Alderman Al Paolillo, Bishop Woods Alderman Gerald Antunes, Westville’s Ina Silverman, Morris Cove’s Arlene DePino — tentatively decided on a meeting at police headquarters June 15 at 6 p.m., when the committee plans to go into executive session to avoid any privacy issues that might apply to the tapes.

Rhodeen said a focus on the cameras’ current performance alone misses the point.

“My feeling — and I’ve talked to many officers in other departments who have cameras on their Tasers — is that the value of the cameras is not so much what they might have offered to date, but what they might offer in the future,” he said.

The city would realize a $20,000 savings from camera-free Tasers. Rhodeen said he considers the cameras a “$20,000 insurance policy.”

“It may not pay off, but for $200,000 it’s worth it, given what a significant issue this is for the city,” he said.

East Shore Alderman Alphonse Paolillo said he had already viewed “about 20” of the Taser videos on his own. He called the chief’s appraisal of the video quality “accurate as far as the footage I’ve been able to see so far.” However, he said he would reserve final judgment until the committee has a chance to view the tapes together, “so that we can be on the same page and see some of the same things.”

“My impression so far is that the footage is not exactly high-definition quality,” he said.

As for the audio quality, he said, there was “some good, some not so good.”

After the group viewing, Paolillo said he plans to reach a firm decision

“I will come out one way or another, but we’ll watch everything and take into account everything that’s been relayed by the chief.”

“The issue that we have,” Rhodeen said, “is that if we were to have a public meeting on it, there would be lots and lots of lawyers involved to decide what the parameters should be, and that might take us awhile.”

In the end, Rhodeen said, the best idea would be for the department to send the camera-free Tasers back and “just simply swap them out” for models with the attached cameras, even if it means they can only afford to buy half as many.

“I feel strongly that given how sensitive an issue this was, and the time and effort put into crafting a policy, it is not wise to save $200,000 and risk an incident with a Taser without a camera and not have some chance to perhaps find out what exactly happened,” he said.