New York Police Department to issue body cameras to all 23,000 patrol officers

The move follows controversy surrounding numerous deaths of suspects at the hands of officers

The force is the largest in the country (AP)

New York City’s police department – the largest in the US – is aiming to put body cameras on all of its patrol officers by 2019 in an attempt to try and build trust with local communities.

Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio said his body camera plan, which will affect all 23,000 of the NYPD’s patrol officers, would “create an atmosphere of transparency and accountability for the good of all”.

A federal judge ordered the NYPD to try out body cameras as part of a 2013 ruling that found the department was wrongly targeting minorities with its stop and frisk tactic.

The NYPD has been the focus of repeated controversy (AP)

The 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and other deaths at the hands of police around the US, including the killing of Eric Garner in New York in July 2014, led to increased demands that officers be issued wearable cameras to deter misconduct. Across the US, body cameras have proved a vital source of evidence over officers’ encounters with members of the public.

The Associated Press said that the NYPD had fallen behind other cities.

Chicago officials have said they will finish a deployment of about 7,000 cameras by the end of this year. San Francisco’s police force, which had no cameras last year, now has at least 250 in use.

Baltimore, which erupted in riots following the 2015 death of Freddie Gray from a spinal injury suffered in police custody, has about 600 officers with cameras.