Smile, you’re on cop camera!
The NYPD on Thursday unveiled new cameras that officers will wear on their heads and shirts as part of a sweeping pilot program to test out the new technology.
Commissioner William Bratton on Thursday showed off the hands-free recording devices, which the department had been ordered by a judge to use as part of a federal lawsuit against stop-and-frisk.
The commissioner said he expects that cameras will help reveal the truth when allegations are made against officers.
“The camera is a significant enhancement to the ‘he-said, she-said’ scenario,” Bratton said.
The NYPD will be the largest police force in the country to use the technology, which can record both video and audio.
One officer demonstrated a 3¹/₂-ounce Taser AXON-brand camera on the frames of his glasses. The device comes with a clear pair if a cop doesn’t wear glasses normally. It looks like a small microphone.
It can also be worn on a baseball cap, collar, or helmet, the company’s web site says.
Another cop wore a three-ounce Vievu LE3 camera clipped to her tie. The aluminum device looks like a pager and is about the size of a pack of cigarettes.
A 15-second video of a car stop staged by NYPD officers was also shown.
The devices will be tested out by 10 cops at each of six precincts around the city.
The chosen commands had the highest number of stop-and-frisks in 2012, and include crime-plagued areas such as the 40th Precinct in the South Bronx and the 75th Precinct in East New York.
They also include Staten Island’s 120th Precinct, where Eric Garner was killed as officers arrested him for selling loose cigarettes.
The NYPD has not decided yet how the video will be stored, or who will have access to it.
“This is an extraordinarily complex initiative,” said Bratton, who has studied the use of cameras in other cities.
“There’s policies here that have to be developed. One size does not fit all,” he said
It will cost the NYPD millions of dollars a year to deploy the cameras widely.
Bratton said that simply storing the video will likely cost hundreds of dollars annually for each device.
Taser users can upload video to their website Evidence.com, or download it onto their own data system. Vievu uses cloud storage.
And while Bratton did not say how much the NYPD will have to pay for the cameras, the makers’ web sites say they cost between $349 and $599.
Cops were ordered last year to start wearing video cameras in a pilot program as part of the verdict of a federal class-action lawsuit against the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices.
Supporters say cameras can discourage bad behavior by police, but also protect officers from bogus allegations.
A lawyer for one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers in the lawsuit blasted the NYPD for preparing to launch the pilot without consulting them.
“This kind of unilateral decision on the part of the NYPD follows the nontransparent, go-it-alone approach to police reform we saw with the prior NYPD and mayoral administration,” fumed attorney Darius Charney in a statement.