Body-cam police now on patrol

Dozens of cops hit the streets in upper Manhattan with body cameras on Thursday, as the NYPD launched the first phase of a new court-ordered pilot program for the devices.

“I’m totally convinced now that this is the way forward,” said Police Commissioner James O’Neill.

“I truly believe that these cameras have the potential to de-escalate and that the footage captured will overwhelmingly benefit everyone involved.”

The cameras were given to about 60 cops working the 4 p.m. to midnight shift in the 34th Precinct. Around 1,200 cameras will be deployed throughout the city in the coming weeks.

By 2019, all 22,000 patrol cops will be wearing the devices, officials said.

A federal court ordered the body-camera program in 2013, after finding that the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk tactics had wrongly tar- geted minorities.

Cops are required to turn the cameras on when they’re using force, making arrests or summonses, interacting with emotionally distressed or criminally suspicious people, searching property or people and responding to crimes in progress.

Some police-reform advocates have been critical that officers aren’t required to turn on the cameras during all interactions.

Assistant Commissioner Nancy Hoppock of the NYPD’s Risk Management Bureau said the policy is an “industry norm.”

“If I’m walking up to you and I have any level of suspicion whatsoever of criminality directed at you, it is on,” she explained.

Officials stressed that the program is still in an experimental phase.

“As we move forward and see there are tweaks that need to be made, we’ll do that,” O’Neill said. “So have faith.”