NEW YORK CITY — The NYPD’s body camera pilot program is being delayed, with the department still four to six months away from signing a contract with a provider, according to a memo filed in federal court on Tuesday.
The NYPD is launching a pilot program that will place about 1,000 body cameras on officers in 20 precincts across the city, but the program likely won’t begin until sometime next year, according to a memo by the program’s court-appointed monitor, attorney Peter Zimroth.
“The [body camera] procurement process is taking longer than the NYPD initially anticipated," Zimroth wrote. “Once a contract is in place, delivery will not be instant, as the vendor will have to prepare and deliver cameras and software to meet NYPD specifications."
The department expects to select a vendor for the cameras this month, but even then, it will take four to six months to officially ink the contract, and longer to get the cameras on the streets, Zimroth writes in the memo, which was first reported by the New York Post.
State Senator Daniel Squadron, who has joined a host of city and state officials in touting the potential benefits of the cameras, said the delay was disappointing, but that he hoped it would give the NYPD time to make sure its body camera policy is airtight.
“An aggressive timeline and quick implementation is important, but it’s gotta be done right,” Squadron said. “This isn’t a quick fix to a short-term problem, but it’s certainly disappointing anytime there’s a delay.”
Squadron, along with Public Advocate Letitia James and Assemblyman Dan Quart, has come out as an advocate of body cameras, and in a letter to the NYPD on Aug. 4 called on the NYPD to allow news organizations and others to request body camera footage under the state’s Freedom of Information Law without having to pay exorbitant fees
“A policy that allows a FOIL request, but makes access cost prohibitive, will not increase the transparency of police-civilian interaction,” the letter reads. “We urge the NYPD to implement policy that ensures [body camera] footage will be released subject to FOIL whenever possible and that prohibits cost from being used as a barrier to public access.”
Situations like the death of Eric Garner, which a bystander caught on tape, prove the importance of body cameras, according to James, who said they will help reduce "he said/she said" dilemmas when sorting out the facts of a given police encounter.
“I don’t think we would be in the position of the Justice Department looking into the case if it weren’t for the video everyone saw,” she said.
The letter came after a partial victory by the cable news station NY1, when a judge ruled that the NYPD could not pass off the cost for reviewing and redacting body-camera footage on a FOIL petitioner. The next hearing in that case is set for Sept. 7.
The NYPD is currently reviewing public comment on its proposed policy for the upcoming pilot program for body cameras, which would require officers to turn on cameras and keep them rolling until the end of any interaction that includes:
► Any use of force.
► All arrests, summonses, searches of persons and property, and any stop or frisk.
► When responding to a crime in progress.
► When patrolling inside a New York Housing Authority (NYCHA) building, or a building enrolled in the Trespass Affidavit Program (TAP).
► When transporting a prisoner or any person in police custody to a police station, hospital or jail.
► When interacting with someone who may be experiencing emotional disturbance.
