A tentative contract announced Friday would make Springfield the first large city in Massachusetts where police officers would wear body cameras.
A four-year contract agreement between the city and its roughly 400-member police officer’s union calls for implementing a body camera program.
The contract still needs to be ratified by the union rank-and-file and the Springfield City Council.
Police Commissioner John Barbieri is a proponent of body cameras.
"I think it is generally good for the public, it would be transparent. So, I definately support it," Barbeiri said in an interview last year.
The tentative contract gives officers a 13 percent pay raise. It also requires newly hired officers to live in the city during the first ten years of their employment.
Other provisions of the tentative contract include a policy on use of personal social media accounts by police officers, and a requirement that police be equipped with the opioid overdose reversal drug Narcan.
