NYPD set to roll out 1,200 additional body cameras around the city
The New York Police Department is set to deploy the first body cameras to officers around the city after resolving some of the thorniest issues on when to switch on the camera, how long to keep the tape and when to tell the public they’re being recorded.
About 1,200 officers who work the evening shift in 20 precincts will get the cameras starting at the end of the month as part of a pilot program ordered by a federal judge. The order followed a 2013 ruling that officers were wrongly targeting black and Hispanic men with its stop-and-frisk program. At the time, few police departments used body cameras.
Their use has exploded around the country following a string of killings of unarmed black people by police over the past three years and the ambush and killing of officers in New York City, Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Both officers and citizens have said cameras could help de-escalate tense situations that lead to violence.
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.