NYPD plans 23,000 body cams. Number on streets now: 0
New York City police plan to put body cameras on all 23,000 of its patrol officers by 2019, an ambitious effort that would dwarf all others across the country.
But the nation’s largest police department is lagging behind other cities, with only limited experience with the cameras and zero currently on the streets.
Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio says his body camera plan, announced during a proposed labour deal last month with the police officer’s union, is crucial to restoring trust between officers and the communities they serve, “creating an atmosphere of transparency and accountability for the good of all.”
A federal judge ordered the NYPD to try out body cameras as part of a 2013 ruling that found the department was wrongly targeting minorities with its stop and frisk tactic. The 2014 killing of Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri, and other deaths at the hands of police around the U.S. led to increased demands that officers be issued wearable cameras to deter misconduct and document shootings and other clashes.