Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Provincetown are held in person, typically with an online-attendance option for both committee members and residents. Click on the meeting you want to attend on the calendar at provincetown-ma.gov for a link to an agenda and details. All meetings are at Town Hall unless otherwise noted.
Thursday, Nov. 23 and Friday, Nov. 24
Town Hall closed for Thanksgiving
Monday, Nov. 27
- Select Board, 6 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 28
- Licensing Board, 5:15 p.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 29
- Coastal Resiliency Advisory Commission, noon
- Harbor Committee, 3 p.m.
Monday, Dec. 4
- Housing Workshop, 6 p.m. (Select Board, Planning Board, Community Housing Council, and Year-Round Market-Rate Rental Housing Trust)
Conversation Starter
Body Cameras
All on-duty Provincetown police officers will begin wearing clearly mounted body cameras beginning Friday, Dec. 1 at 7 a.m. The officers will be trained in “when the camera should and should not be used” and “when and why to review footage,” according to a memo to the select board from Town Manager Alex Morse.
The department’s policies for use of the cameras are posted online and include a directive to activate them during most interactions with the public beyond “innocuous activities” such as directing traffic. The cameras display a red light when they are recording and have a “buffer feature” that can store and save video for the 30 seconds prior to an officer activating the camera.
Camera recordings can be released in accordance with state public records laws, although particular attention should be given to “special privacy or safety issues,” the policy says. The police dept.’s records clerk is charged with maintaining and handling the recordings.
In January 2022, Wellfleet’s police dept. became the first on Cape Cod to outfit all its officers with body cameras, although some Cape Cod National Seashore rangers have been wearing them since 2014. The state’s Body Worn Camera Initiative has been providing grant funding to police departments to set up body camera programs for several years now. —Paul Benson
