Activists push for taped NYPD interrogations

Advocates on Thursday demanded that Mayor de Blasio require the NYPD to videotape interrogations and change the way cops conduct police lineups.

The advocates, many of whom served prison time and were later exonerated, say the reforms would greatly reduce the city’s wrongful-conviction rate.

“This is not finding a cure for cancer. We know how to correct this,” said activist and lawyer Ron Kuby during a rally at City Hall.

“What we need is a mayor who cares at least as much about this as he cares about bare breasts in Times Square. We’re not asking for dramatic reforms.”

Kuby, general counsel for Families of the Wrongfully Convicted, said the mayor has the “specific authority” to enact changes without City Council or state approval.

Kuby also took a shot at Gov. Cuomo and the state Legislature, predicting that a reform bill in Albany “would go nowhere.”

Videotaped interrogations have become more common recently — they’re required in at least 19 states.

Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, said taped interrogations are worth examining, but dismissed calls for “doubleblind” lineups, in which cops setting up a lineup would not know which person the suspect is.

“It’s disarming law enforcement,” Mullins said.