NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The NYPD must release body camera footage within 30 days if a police officer shoots someone, fires a gun in a way that could have hit someone, or seriously injures or kills someone using either force or a taser, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea on Monday vowed to shut down the department’s “plainclothes" anti-crime units and reassign their officers in an effort to rebuild trust between police and the communities they serve.
During his daily briefing on Tuesday, de Blasio said the city would take “another step toward a more accountable system.”
“We hope to never have these kind of incidents to have to release this footage on, obviously, or very, very rarely in the case of when an officer needs to use their weapon,” he said, adding that the new policy is “a good thing for everyone involved."
“That creates trust; that creates accountability; that says to the many, many good officers that they know the whole truth will come out from what they saw, from their literal perspective, and it says to any officer who doesn’t yet fully understand their responsibilities, that they will be held accountable and there will be consequences,” he said.
Any body camera footage that meets the new criteria will be posted online after the families of those involved in a given incident have seen it, he said.
The NYPD launched its first wave of body-worn cameras back in 2017, according to a slide presented during the mayor’s briefing. By 2019, body camera use had expanded to “all patrol and specialty units.”
The department has deployed 24,000 body-worn cameras to date — “by far the biggest body-worn camera initiative in the country,” de Blasio said.
“When people see this kind of transparency, it will build trust,” he said. “Yesterday was a step. Today was another step. There is much more to come in the weeks ahead.”
Also on Tuesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation requiring New York State Police officers to wear body cameras while on patrol.