Mayor Bill de Blasio, Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson today announced the New York City Police Department will speed up its timeline to outfit all police officers and detectives on patrol with body worn cameras by the end of 2018, one year earlier than previously planned. The Administration and the Department initially projected that all officers on patrol would receive body cameras by the end of 2019.
“Body cameras have helped guide a new day in policing, bolstering transparency and increasing accountability. Now we’re accelerating their expansion,” said Mayor de Blasio. “By ensuring all patrol officers are outfitted with these essential, modern policing tools a year faster than originally planned, we’re helping to make New York City fairer faster, and growing trust between police and communities.”
“Through the hard work of our technical and support staff, along with the valuable feedback from those commands that have already been equipped with body cameras, we are now able to move forward at a faster pace in expanding the program,” said Police Commissioner O’Neill. “We are on track to have all precinct, transit and housing commands citywide up-and-running with body cameras by the end of this year.”
“Body cameras are essential to modern policing both to ensure the safety of all New Yorkers and to solidify relations between the NYPD and the communities that they serve. This is an important step that will keep our City’s police force on the cutting edge as we work to make our City fairer and safer. The Council has worked to increase transparency these past few years to strengthen our police force. With increased accountability and additional resources, we will continue to work together in maintain our City’s record low crime rate. As Speaker of the City Council, I am proud to be a partner with the Mayor and the Commissioner in doing everything in our power to ensure the City of New York continues to be the safest big city in the world,” said Council Speaker Corey Johnson.
The de Blasio Administration’s Preliminary Budget includes $5.9 million in Fiscal Year 2018, $12 million in Fiscal Year 2019 and $9.5 million in Fiscal Year 2020 in funding for the accelerated rollout. The resources will cover the cost of purchasing body worn cameras, associated information technology upgrades, and the build out of the space for the Body Worn Camera Units in the Risk Management, Information Technology and Legal Bureaus.
As of January 26th, 2018 the NYPD has deployed 2,470 body cameras. Starting this January, the NYPD plans to issue approximately 800 cameras each month, increasing to 1,000 to 2,000 per month beginning in March. By the end of 2018, the NYPD plans to have deployed a total of 18,000 body cameras. Only police officers and detective specialists on patrol will be outfitted with a body camera.
In addition to the body cameras themselves, NYPD requires IT infrastructure upgrades in the facilities to ensure a smooth rollout. The work will enable the charging of body cameras in police facilities and additional internet bandwidth to accommodate faster video footage uploads.
