Every NYC Patrol Cop Now Has A Body Camera, NYPD Says

NEW YORK — There's a good chance the next cop you see will be able to record you. The NYPD has outfitted all of its uniformed patrol cops with a total of 20,000 body cameras, completing a nearly two-year rollout, the department announced Wednesday.

Each police officer, sergeant and lieutenant in every precinct, police service area and transit district now has one of the devices, the NYPD said. The department plans to distribute 4,000 more cameras by August to specialized units such as the Critical Response Command, a counterterrorism force.

Cops have to turn the cameras on when they're making arrests, issuing summonses or searching someone on the street, according to the NYPD. The department said it has recorded more than 3.5 million videos since the rollout started in April 2017.

"Body-worn cameras enhance the safety and accountability of the dedicated men and women of the NYPD while improving their ability to ensure public safety," Police Commissioner James O'Neill said in a statement. "This completed roll-out marks a significant milestone for the NYPD."

The NYPD was forced to start using body cameras under a 2013 federal court order in a case that found the department's stop-and-frisk practices violated constitutional rights. They were first used in a yearlong pilot program but the NYPD started to expand their use in December 2017.

The department originally planned to have each patrol cop outfitted with a camera by the end of last year. But the timeline was pushed back after one cop's camera exploded in October, forcing the NYPD to recall nearly 3,000 of them.

The NYPD argues the cameras bolster police accountability and allow supervisors to review events. All officers who wear them have been trained on how they work and on the NYPD's body camera policies, the department said.

The NYPD has released a handful of body-camera videos of police shootings. That stopped after the city's largest police union, the Police Benevolent Association, sued to keep the videos under wraps.

But an appellate court ruled against the union last month. That allows the NYPD to release footage when appropriate and in response to public-records requests, the department said. The union has said it has moved to appeal the decision.