City Council Members Are Playing Politics with the NYPD's Drive to Equip Police with Video Recording Devices

 

A New York Daily News Editorial

The impending purchase of body cameras by the NYPD has revealed that many of the city’s elected leaders need a tutorial in the department’s introduction of the devices.

Members of the City Council have both spread misinformation about the selection of a vendor and baselessly undermined public trust in the NYPD’s plan for equipping thousands of officers with the devices.

No sooner had the department announced its first choice in vendors, subject to a public hearing, than Brooklyn Councilman Robert Cornegy, co-chair of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, blasted the selection as incompetent — based provably on critical information fed to him by a losing competitor hoping to get back into the race.

Still more troubling, Bronx Councilman Ritchie Torres, a member of the Public Safety Committee, accused the NYPD of moving slowly in equipping officers with cameras as a way to forestall accountability.

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