When body cameras first rolled out, someone (an actual person) had to review the footage. Officers had to wait for that review to be completed before ending their shift. If I recall correctly, that wait was overtime at first and then policy was modified and it became unpaid time.I hope that has changed.
MikeTheGreat|1 year ago
No offense, but that _sounds_ like a super-specific policy :)
Also, how would that even work? Is there a second person who's watching the first cop's entire day? Like, even at 8x speed that's an hour for to watch an 8 hour shift.
It seems like a more reasonable / likely policy is that the video footage is automatically archived and then deleted after a reasonable time (3 months? 6? a year?) if it's not requested by anybody.
That way someone can request the relevant footage when a (hopefully infrequent) complaint is made, possibly after the requester has gotten a lawyer (etc), but the 99% of the footage that isn't useful never consumes anyone's time ("Watch as Officer Smith.. PATIENTLY WAITS FOR THE LIGHT TO TURN GREEN!!!1!!!1" :) ).
gooseyman|1 year ago
From their Patrol Guide, below is what an officer is to do with video before their next tour of duty. My local department adopted this language almost verbatim.
These cameras are not upload and forget it. I'd encourage you to read on some of this as your comment "how would that even work" tells me your jaw is about to be on the floor when you read about the levels of red tape attached to these. To be clear, I'm pro camera and accept these costs of oversight. That doesn't mean the system cannot be improved.
Fun, but sarcastic idea: YouTube is filled with First Amendment Auditors. @AuditTheAudit has 818,495,408 views... let's let departments upload and have would be FA auditor viewers review, and if needed, tag videos for Internal Audit review. The People were going to give their time away anyhow, might as well save some fellow tax payers money... Wait, I take this back. I can see the officers now starting the body cam footage to talk about Better Help and Express VPN... never mind!
NYPD Patrol Guide 212-123: 16. Access the video management system on the Department Intranet or Department smartphone to classify videos based upon the nature of the event. a. Select one category for BWC video retention from the dropdown list in the following priority order: (1) Arrest, (2) Homicide, (3) Summons, (4) Investigative Encounter, and (5) Uncategorized. b. Document the nature of event from dropdown list (e.g., EDP, DV incident, home visit, etc.), (1) If the nature of the event cannot be selected from the dropdown list, enter a description of the event and include the associated ICAD number. c. If related to an arrest, enter the complete arrest number, beginning with the borough letter designation in the appropriate field, and/or d. If related to a Terry Stop/Level 3 Encounter not involving an arrest, enter the Stop Report number in the appropriate field. 17. Categorize all BWC videos by the end of next scheduled tour
Source: Linked PDF Page 5 https://www.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/downloads/pdf/public_informa...