The NYPD is accelerating its body camera program and will outfit nearly 18,000 patrol cops with the devices by the end of 2018, a full year ahead of the original schedule, city officials said Tuesday.
At a news conference at the 79th Precinct in Brooklyn, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill and other officials said money for fast tracking the body camera program will be part of the preliminary budget scheduled to be announced on Thursday.
De Blasio couldn’t give an exact dollar amount on the cost but indicated the money had been appropriated.
The city already has about 1,453 officers using body cameras as part of a pilot program supervised by a federal court monitor. The pilot program began in April 2017 and is used in 20 police commands, Newsday reports.