Cameras on Cops Debut in NYC

By DEREK NORMAN

Just after roll call, 10 police officers walked out of the 34th Precinct, stepped into their squad cars and pulled out into the uptown streets to begin their 4 p.m. to midnight shifts. A seemingly routine beginning of tour for a New York City police officer, despite one thing: a camera attached to the front of their uniforms.

Thursday afternoon marked the launch of the New York City Police Department’s pilot program requiring  officers to wear video-recording cameras on the front of their uniforms and record any police activity engagement with the public. Initiating the “body-worn camera roll-out” program were 60 patrol officers from precinct in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan.

“It offers a fantastic snapshot of what it’s like to be a cop here,” said Police Commissioner James O’Neill, at a mayoral press conference held in the precinct that afternoon. “Having been a cop for more than 34-and-a-half years… I wasn’t entirely convinced that wearing a camera on patrol was something I would have personally wanted to do. I’m totally convinced now that this is the way forward.”

Plans for phase two of the program encompass 20 local commands and more than 1000 officers wearing cameras. By June, the department would expand the program to Brooklyn, and by next fall, should span across the five boroughs. Officials plan that by next year, 5000 patrol officers would wear the digital devices.

“This is a historic day for New York City,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “This is the first day of the era of body-worn cameras and that means we are going on a pathway of transparency and accountability that will benefit everyone.”

The program, which came after a federal court order to end the controversial stop-and-frisk policing, has given the department an opportunity to rebuild trust among the public and repair the relationship between the community and the officers who patrol it. Despite recent years of having one of the lowest crime rates the city has seen, as according to de Blasio, the public is still recovering from decades of public mistrust and lack of accountability in the department.

“There is a constant yearning to do better and an unwillingness to ever rest on their morals,” said de Blasio. “We understand how high the stakes are. We understand the mission is to protect human lives. Complacency is not acceptable and this is the kind of innovation that has become commonplace in the NYPD.”

The pilot program will be federally monitored, as per the court order, as well as by the plaintiffs in the stop-and-frisk litigation. Before the program launched, there was extensive research conducted by over 50 agencies, the Justice Department, the Civilian Complaints Review Board, City Council, and most importantly: the citizens of New York.

Over 25,000 New York City residents responded to surveys from the city to gather opinions on the program; some responses resulted in changes to the approach. Public concern included, the invasion of privacy while entering a home, the anonymity of sexual assault victims and the potential for an officer to “forget to turn the camera on” when involved in a suspicious situation. In response to the latter, the commissioner noted that naturally there will be an initial learning curve, but officers who fail to use their cameras would be punished.

Requirements of the new policing approach include that each officer must inform any person that they are recording the situation, the data of each camera must be uploaded at the end of every tour, and each officer must participate in 90 days of patrol training in a mock environment at the Police Academy.

Noting the controversial deaths at the hands of police officers in recent years, like that of Eric Garner, a Staten Island resident who died as a result of an arrest several years ago, the use of body-worn cameras by police is what First Deputy Commissioner Ben Tucker is calling “a milestone to rebuilding trust in the city.”

If the program proves successful, by 2019, every single officer in the New York City police department will have a camera as a permanent fixture to their uniform.

“Mark my words…” said de Blasio. “This is going to make us safer.”

Photo by Derek Norman