Inspector General Recommends Changes in NYPD Body Camera Policy

NYPD officers should press the record button on their body cameras during all types of street encounters — not just when there is “reasonable suspicion” of criminal activity, a police watchdog agency says.

According to the Office of the Inspector General for the NYPD, the police department’s current policy governing the use of body cameras gives cops too much discretion.

This is one of several key issues that need to be worked out before the NYPD expands its pilot program to outfit thousands of additional officers, the New York Post reports.

“Ultimately, OIG-NYPD has found that NYPD’s reliance on a ‘reasonable suspicion’ standard for when activation of (body cameras) is mandatory is too restrictive to fully capture the wide range of police-community encounters,” the agency writes in a report issued Wednesday.

The department recently began soliciting bids for a manufacturer to add to the 60 cameras currently being tested by patrol officers in five crime-plagued precincts.