Her record in Portsmouth
She voted against body cameras.
Then she took credit for them.
The Portsmouth Police Commission voted 3–0 against body cameras in 2019 and stood by that vote after George Floyd was killed.
Her record in Portsmouth
Body cameras: she voted no, then took credit
At the Oct. 19 debate she cited her time on the Portsmouth Police Commission after George Floyd's killing. Here is what she said, and what the record shows.
She said · Oct. 19, 2026 debate
“I was in that role when George Floyd was killed and we worked really hard to restore trust in our community by doing things like de-escalation training and body cameras.”
▶ Watch the New England College debate (at 46:40)
The record
In 2019 the three-member commission voted 3–0 against body cameras. “This isn’t the moment for a number of reasons,” she said, naming the police station and IT as bigger needs.
Six weeks after George Floyd was killed, her commission told residents it was standing by that vote. It said the money would be “better spent on officer training in the areas of de-escalation” and the other priorities it listed.
Portsmouth police never wore a body camera while she served. The city approved cameras in June 2024, five months after she left.
Sources: NHPR, Sept. 27, 2019; Portsmouth Herald, Sept. 25, 2019; Seacoast Online, July 9, 2020; Portsmouth City Council minutes, June 17, 2024
Show the full timeline, 2019–2024
Sept. 2019
Police Commission votes 3–0 against body cameras
She says introducing them “right now to me seems like it’s not the right time.” (NHPR; Portsmouth Herald)May 25, 2020
George Floyd is killed in Minneapolis
Residents ask the commission to reconsider.July 2020
Commission stands by its vote
Its written reply: the $125,000 a year would be “money better spent on officer training in the areas of de-escalation…” (Seacoast Online). A citizens’ petition naming her and the other two commissioners draws 1,115 signatures (petition).2022
She is commission chair
City records list “Commission Chair Stefany Shaheen” (Feb. 2022 agenda).Jan. 2024
She leaves the commission
No body cameras in use.June 17, 2024
City Council approves body cameras
A $1.8 million, five-year contract; the police chief says rollout comes “after the first of the year” (Council minutes).
“I chaired our police commission for six years.” That's what she said at the debate, and her LinkedIn lists her as chair from January 2019 to January 2024. But at the September 2019 body-camera vote, the Portsmouth Herald identified the chair as Joe Onosko, and in July 2020 Seacoast Online did the same and her as “Commissioner Stefany Shaheen.” City records first list her as chair in 2022. She served on the commission for about five years, not six, and chaired it for part of that time.
A body-camera project first appeared in the city’s capital plan in 2023, while she was on the commission. We found no record of the commission voting for body cameras during her tenure.