CPR Calls for Changes to NYPD Body Camera Policy to Ensure Transparency, Independent Third-Party Storage of Footage

In response to the NYPD’s release of its proposed policy on body cameras ordered as a result of the Floyd v. City of New York case and a public comment period/survey, Communities United for Police Reform released the following statement from spokesperson Loyda Colon, co-director of the Justice Committee.

“Body cameras are no solution or substitute for accountability – they can enhance transparency, but only if the policies and procedures associated with them prioritize transparency. The NYPD’s proposed rules are not sufficient in that regard, and must be improved for this technology to be of value for communities subjected to discriminatory policing – the intended beneficiary of the court’s ordering this program. It was the leadership of communities affected by discriminatory policing and stop-and-frisk in partnership with Center for Constitutional Rights and co-counsel that led to the federal court ruling responsible for the introduction of body cameras. The input of these communities should substantively impact any final policy, and there must be formal, structured roles for them in the evaluation of the body camera program’s implementation.

“Any final NYPD body camera policy must limit officer discretion in turning off cameras and indicate clear, meaningful discipline for violating such policy, given that the recent largest study of body cameras to date found police assaults on civilians increased dramatically when officers could control when cameras were turned on and off. If the NYPD’s failure to hold officers accountable for violations related to body cameras is similar to its failed accountability for brutality and misconduct, then the program’s legitimacy will be in question. Control of the footage and its retention are also critical issues, in which the NYPD has already shown some troubling intentions. An independent governmental third party should be responsible for storing and managing the footage, so that there is no tampering and access is available to the public without arbitrary restriction.‎

“It is a positive step that the NYPD approved a way for the public to provide feedback to draft policies, but to be effective this process must be meaningful and accessible. The current public comment period is too short and should be extended to a minimum of 60 days based on when language access is made available. This process should maximize language accessibility for all communities impacted by discriminatory policing and that means also including Bengali and Urdu, which the process currently does not appear to include. Transparency and openness in the formulation of body camera policy, seeking of public comment and its impact on final policy, and implementation evaluation are critical to ensure that a program likely to impact policing in NYC for decades benefits those communities responsible for it as a result of their historically being harmed by discriminatory policing.”

BACKGROUND

80 Percent of Chicago PD Dash-Cam Videos are Missing Audio Due to ‘Officer Error’ or ‘Intentional Destruction’ (Washington Post, January 2016)

It’s Almost Impossible to Tell if Police Camera Footage Has Been Edited (Huffington Post, August 2015)

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