The Select Board unanimously approved on Monday recommending the Capital Improvement Plan warrant article that includes appropriating $200,000 to buy the cameras.
The board previously approved the Capital Improvement Plan on March 2, but there had been a change to the plan to include the funding of cameras for the Police Department, Town Manager Melissa Rodrigues said.
The request of $200,000 to be used from free cash for the old Senior Center project was removed from the plan to offset the cost.
“We put the $200,000 into body cameras instead,” Rodrigues said.
A Capital Improvement Plan identifies tangible assets or projects in town that cost more than $25,000 and have a minimum lifespan of at least five years. Voters will decide if they want to approve the $10.7 million in capital projects for fiscal 2027. There are 37 proposed projects, including the body cameras. The article’s approval requires a majority vote.
The funds will pay for the cameras and the software for 50 officers at a projected cost of about $2,000 per officer.
Rodrigues said she “rounded up” $100,000 to cover other related costs such as software and record-retention equipment.
She presented her recommended fiscal 2027 budget that included the Capital Improvement Plan at a tri-board meeting of the Select Board, Finance Committee and School Committee in December.
At the meeting, the town manager’s office requested $200,000 to complete the former senior center reuse project. Most of the work has been done using grant money from Columbia Gas, but at the time, town staff were concerned they needed extra funds to finish the project.
Asked Tuesday when the senior center project was swapped out for the body cameras, Rodrigues said it was changed after working through potential costs associated with CIP projects. She said the old Senior Center project was on budget with bids, which “opened some capacity for us.”
Rodrigues and police Chief Charles Gray said in a joint, prepared statement Friday that initiating a body-worn camera program is one of the Select Board’s stated goals for fiscal 2027. There was no comment if pursuing body cameras was in response to a June 30 shooting incident involving former North Andover police officer Kelsey Fitzsimmons, who was shot by her colleague, officer Patrick Noonan, inside her home when being served with a restraining order.
An Essex County judge found Fitzsimmons not guilty of an assault charge March 26.
In the explanation of his verdict, Judge Jeffrey Karp noted that perhaps state prosecutors would have been able to meet the burden of proof if North Andover police officers wore body cameras.
A funding source will need to be determined in the future for the storage of the body cameras and the content they create. It’s recommended to have one employee manage the cameras and all footage requests for every 100 officers in a department, Rodrigues said.
“We only have 50 officers, and so we would fold that into one of the administrative positions,” she said. The software, which includes an annual fee, will eventually come from either the town’s information technology budget or the department’s budget. Rodrigues said the source of the money will depend on if the vendor selected serves multiple town departments.
The town won’t know the answer until it goes through the procurement process, she said.
©2026 The Eagle-Tribune, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
