Will Boston Be Safer When Police Have Body Cameras?

The Boston Police Department will officially introduce 400 body cameras to the force, according to an announcement from Boston Mayor Marty Walsh Thursday. He's not yet said which officers would wear them or when, but he's already committed $2 million in startup costs to implement the body camera program.

The news came after a long-awaited report on the city's pilot program that sought to address police and community concerns about the technology and offer policy recommendations.

"We were able to determine that officers with cameras in Boston — 100 officers who wore the cameras — that they had fewer uses of force and that they had fewer complaints against them. And these changes, these differences, were statistically significant," said Jack McDevitt, co-author of the report.

An important question remains: When scaled, will the presence of body cameras help deescalate heightened interactions between police officers and members of the public?

Shekia Scott, graduate co-founder of the Boston Police Camera Action Team. She tweets @_ShesThatGirl.