New York cops test out body cameras as protests begin over Garner decision

Dozens of New York City police officers will wear body cameras to record their interactions with citizens beginning this week, city officials announced Wednesday. The small pilot program launches as the city is bracing itself for massive protests after a grand jury decided against charging a police officer in the death of an unarmed Staten Island man.

Mayor Bill DeBlasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton announced the body-camera pilot program Wednesday morning, just hours before a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict a police officer who allegedly used a chokehold while arresting Eric Garner for selling untaxed cigarettes in July. Garner died after saying “I can’t breathe”; the confrontation was recorded by a bystander and sparked widespread outrage about the police’s use of force in response to a minor crime.

The officer, Daniel Pantaleo, could still face federal charges or a civil suit. Bratton said Pantaleo is suspended from his duties until the NYPD’s internal investigation into his actions wraps up.

Part of why the Garner case attracted so much attention is that there was a relatively clear cellphone video of it. Despite the video showing Garner’s death, Pantaleo was not charged, which raises questions about whether body cameras will help people who complain about excessive use of police force. Officers have wide legal latitude to respond to real and perceived threats against them.

DeBlasio said the cameras, which could one day be worn by all 35,000 officers, would increase transparency and accountability.

“God forbid, when something goes wrong, we are going to have a clearer sense of what happened,” he said. “We’re going to see the officer’s perspective, and I think that’s powerful.”

Bratton said the police unions have not expressed any resistance to the 3-ounce cameras, which will be clipped to the front of cops’ uniforms. He believes the cameras will actually reduce complaints against the Police Department, as happened in Los Angeles after some officers began wearing them. “In the majority of the cases, the complaint goes away,” said Bratton, who led the LAPD between 2002 and 2009.

Jim Pasco, the executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police’s national legislative office, said body cameras come with big logistical challenges.

“Probably the easiest part of the whole process is announcing that you’re going to buy cameras and putting them on the officers,” Pasco said. After that, departments have to figure out how to pay for massive data storage required for the footage, navigate citizens’ complaints about their own privacy when they’re being recorded, and other issues.

The NYPD paid $50,000 to buy two different types of body cameras for the pilot program, but Bratton said he’s anticipating that the data storage associated with them will be the biggest cost going forward. Officers are being trained to lift the camera’s shutter to turn the camera on a few seconds before they make a stop or an arrest, then to close the shutter to turn it off after the interaction ends. “It’s going to become an instinctive thing,” DeBlasio said.

Another potential hurdle to implementation is how the Police Department will respond to Freedom of Information Act requests from reporters and citizens to see the footage. Bratton said Seattle’s Police Department was so overwhelmed with the requests that it’s considering ending its program.

“We are dealing with unexplored territory on this issue,” Bratton said. “We’re going to all learn together.”

The pilot program will initially last three months before the department decides whether to expand it to more precincts. DeBlasio said the city would apply for a piece of the $50 million in federal funding for the cameras recently announced by President Barack Obama, if Congress agrees to allocate it.