Hit ‘Play’
Years after the first city cops got body cameras and 15 months since all 24,000 uniform patrol officers were equipped, it wasn’t until yesterday that the NYPD set more reasonable rules for how and when the public can see and hear the recordings. Mayor de Blasio’s announcement is welcome, but late. Credit the national uproar over the murder of George Floyd.
Until now, the policy granted too broad discretion to the police commissioner in deciding whether videos should be released. Starting immediately, all footage of incidents of officers firing their guns or tasers that hit or could hit someone will be released within 30 days. The same for when cops kill or cause “great bodily harm.”
The new policy is not enough, as it’s not retroactive. That means hundreds of thousands of hours of footage recorded by camerawearing cops, including fatal encounters, remain sealed.
Also on Tuesday, Gov. Cuomo signed legislation outfitting state troopers with body cams. At a minimum, they must have the same disclosure rules.
De Blasio’s other change dismantles the NYPD’s roughly 600-member plainclothes “anti-crime” unit, which hunted illegal guns, but suffered a too-high number of shootings. Commissioner Dermot Shea deemed the change a “seismic” one, but we’re skeptical.
The “anti-crime” unit was itself a new, improved version of an older, plainclothes “street crime unit,” which was renamed to address its officers’ reputation for over-aggressive behavior. Other plainclothes officers will still be deployed citywide and in the transit system.
Only time will tell us whether this change is really earthshaking or just another rebranding.