It’s been about a year in the making, but police officers in the county are now piloting body cameras.
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This is one of several key issues that need to be worked out before the NYPD expands its pilot program to outfit thousands of additional officers.
The department recently began soliciting bids for a manufacturer to add to the 60 cameras now being tested by patrol officers in five crime-plagued precincts. The video captured by Tensing’s body camera played a key role in his indictment. The IG’s office didn’t have a solution for the NYPD on that front, but urged them to figure one out.
“NYPD’s policy should likewise include multiple examples to illustrate the broad range of covered encounters, as such examples may assist officers with recalling and interpreting the policy while on duty”, the report reads.
The inspector general also found that the department must be more careful in order to prevent filming “vulnerable populations” like victims of sex crimes, abused children and confidential informants, as well as devise punishments to ensure officers follow recording rules.
But the inspector general said the department needs to tighten up its plan before expanding the program.
“NYPD should develop a process for addressing the unique challenges that BWC FOIL requests will pose prior to embarking on any expansion of this program”, the report says. Andrea Janvier said. They have a number of body cameras in storage that are expected to be assigned to officers once policies are in place for their use, Janvier said.
An officer is shown here wearing a Vievu body camera. As they were volunteers, those officers had no disciplinary consequences for not following camera protocol, the report said.
The pilot program, detailed in an internal police order, is separate from a court-ordered body cameras program that resulted from a federal lawsuit over officers’ use of the stop, question and frisk police tactic.
The since-fired officer, who shot an unarmed driver in the head as he started to drive away from a routine traffic stop, initially said he got tangled in the driver’s vehicle and feared he was going to get run over. Tensing’s indictment hinged on the video footage from the body camera the officer wore during the shooting, which prosecutors have since described as a “senseless, asinine shooting” of the unarmed Dubose.
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Eure, who works with the Department of Investigation, also said recordings should be archived for 18 months, instead of the current 12 months under department rules.
