R&I – FS
In the moments after a recent shooting in Times Square, New York City police officer Alyssa Vogel heard an officer yell, “There’s a baby.” Body camera footage shows her take off running, finding a 4-year-old girl bleeding from a stray bullet. Vogel quickly applied a tourniquet and helped her to an ambulance.
Vogel’s exemplary actions were highlighted on the @NYPDnews Twitter account last week. Meanwhile, an appeals court recently ruled that the NYPD must turn over a less-redacted version of body camera footage from the 2018 fatal shooting of Susan Muller, who was mentally ill, in her home. The police department has been fighting against releasing the video for years.
Days-old video released in one case; years of delays in another. That difference, civil liberties advocates say, is a problem.
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Within two years of Brown’s death, more than 7,200 law enforcement agencies had acquired body-worn cameras, according to a 2018 Bureau of Justice Statistics analysis. The number is probably much higher today, experts said.
But nearly 38%of those agencies had no formal policy governing their use. And roughly 60% allowed an officer involved in an incident to access the recording without having to file a formal request — which could raise questions about whether an officer used the video to get his story straight or tampered with the recording.
FoundingFrog