Portland Police Chief Mike Sauschuck says he does not support calls by Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling, the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine and other organizations to fast-track a body camera program after an officer’s use of deadly force to stop a man wielding a pellet gun in a Portland parking lot last Saturday.
“I am saddened, I am disappointed, and I’ll tell ya, I’m disgusted around any use of a tragedy to further some kind of political agenda around body cameras,” Sauschuck says. “There are individuals and organizations that seem to have used this particular incident as some kind of a platform to further an agenda. And as the chief of the Portland Police Department, I don’t appreciate that. I don’t think it’s necessary in this community to drag the Portland Police Department into some kind of national debate about body cameras.”
He says he does support the use of body cameras but that they’re not a panacea. Sauschuck says he has been working with the city manager to implement body cameras in July of 2018, which will allow time to ensure good policy.
