NYPD Pulls Nearly 3,000 Body Cameras After 1 Explodes

NEW YORK — The NYPD is taking close to 20 percent of its body cameras off the streets after one officer's blew up over the weekend. The cop's Vievu LE-5 model camera exploded after he noticed smoke coming from it and removed it from his body, the Police Department said.

No one was hurt in the incident, but Police Commissioner James O'Neill suspended the use of the 2,990 cameras of that model "out of an abundance of caution," the NYPD said in a statement.

"The incident revealed a potential for the battery inside the camera to ignite," the department said. "The cause and scope of the defect are currently being investigated."

Cops using those cameras were told to bring them back to their commands and will go without body cameras for the time being, the department said.

The problematic cameras are among 15,500 currently deployed by the police force, according to the NYPD. The department has pledged to equip nearly 20,000 patrol cops with body cameras by the end of the year. It was required to test them under a 2013 court order that said the department's stop-and-frisk practices violated constitutional rights.

The defect doesn't impact the Vievu LE-4 model cameras, which cops will continue to wear and use, the NYPD said.

Several police departments across the country complained that Vievu's cameras were unreliable, DNAinfo reported last year. But the NYPD went ahead with a $6.4 million contract to buy cameras from the firm anyway over objections from City Comptroller Scott Stringer, the website reported at the time.

(Lead image: An NYPD officer demonstrates a body camera during a press conference in December 2014. Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)