NYPD gets rolling on body cams
The NYPD will launch its bodycam pilot program by the end of the month — and on Friday laid out its proposed policy for using the devices.
Under the program, some 1,200 cameras will be deployed in 20 Big Apple precincts to cops working the 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift. Another 20 precincts will not have cameras.
The program is set to begin nearly four years after a federal judge ruled the NYPD’s use of stop and frisk violated the constitutional rights of mi- norities and called for the cameras.
The rules lay out what situations cops are required to record, as well as when they have to inform the public that they’re being recorded, according to an eight-page draft order.
Officers wearing body cameras will have to record during arrests; searches of homes; searches in the street; vertical patrol; uses of force; stop and frisks; and traffic stops, the proposed order says. They will also have to record when responding to a crime in progress and during interactions with an emotionally disturbed person, the policy states.
Cops will have to notify people when they are being filmed unless doing so would put the investigation or the person’s safety in jeopardy, officials said.
Three NYPD unions immediately announced they’ll file legal papers challenging the policy, complaining they weren’t consulted beforehand.