Portland officials say the city's school resource officers (SRO) will hold off on wearing body cameras, after a tense disagreementwith the school board over the issue Tuesday night.
At that meeting, Police Chief Frank Clark proposed that school resource officers begin wearing body cameras as part of a pilot program. But several board members expressed concerns about student privacy and ownership of the recordings.
Board member Timothy Atkinson said some students may have issues with being filmed and having those recordings uploaded to a police server.
“I think there could be students that don't show up to school that day when that goes into effect,” says Atkinson. “And that's not even remotely acceptable.”
The school board unanimously voted to ask the department to hold off until they reached an agreement on new guidelines.
Portland City Spokesperson Jessica Grondin says the city manager and police met Wednesday and agreed to hold off on the use of body cameras in schools while negotiations continue. But she says if officials cannot find common ground, "we'll have to talk about having the SROs in the school at all. Because there can't really be a distinction between the policies of how an SRO operates, separate from a regular officer on the street."
School resource offices are currently stationed in two of Portland's high schools.
