POLICE VIDEOS ‘PUBLIC’

Court body-cam ruling

Footage pulled from police body cams is not private, a New York appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The Police Benevolent Association sued Mayor de Blasio and the NYPD last year, alleging violations of the state’s Civil Rights Law 50-A — which bars the video from being made public because it’s part of an officer’s personnel record.

But the Appellate Division-First Department upheld a lower court’s ruling, saying edited portions of the footage could be made public without a hearing.

“We find that given its nature and use, the bodyworn-camera footage at issue is not a personnel record covered by the confidentiality and disclosure requirements,” the Tuesday order reads. “The purpose of body-worn-camera footage is for use in the service of other key objectives of the program, such as transparency, accountability and public trust-building.”

The ruling lifts a temporary restraining installed last May, which barred the release of video.

While the court found the PBA had “valid concerns” about officers’ privacy and safety, they worried that siding with the union could affect the transparency of the police department.

The panel noted it was their job to consider body- cam footage’s “general use, not solely whether it may be contemplated for use in a performance evaluation.

“Otherwise, that could sweep into the purview of . . . police records that are an expected or required part of investigations or performance evaluations, such as arrest reports, stop reports, summonses, and accident reports, which clearly are not in the nature of personnel records.”

The NYPD released its first-ever body-cam footage of a police-involved killing in September 2017, prompting the union’s lawsuit.

The tense, 48-minute video showed the fatal shooting of Miguel Antonio Richards of The Bronx after he threatened cops with a knife and a fake gun.

Police Commissioner James O’Neill lauded the court’s decision.

“This ruling is an important step forward for transparency, and affirms what the NYPD believes — not only is the public entitled to this information, but this footage overwhelmingly shows just how brave, skilled and dedicated our cops are every single day in service of the people of New York City,” he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, PBA President Patrick Lynch said the union may appeal.

“We believe that the court’s decision is wrong,” Lynch stated. Additional reporting by Tina Moore