By Graham Rayman
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — After a correction captain’s body worn camera caught fire in early May, Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie pulled all 3,500 cameras out of service for a review that her aides said would take one to two weeks.
But now seven weeks after the May 3 fire, it appears the cameras will remain offline for at least another 10 weeks, according to a report by the federal monitor on violence and use of force in the jails.
That means a key tool to determine what happens in the jails won’t be in service until early October.
The monitor, Steve Martin, also reported that officers often don’t or can’t wear their cameras because DOC didn’t have enough backings to attach them to their uniforms — a problem the department is now trying to correct, the monitor said.
It was unclear Friday why there weren’t enough backings.
“Even as the supply of backings has increased, BWC practices continued to falter as staff do not always wear or activate their BWC when required,” the report said.
“The use of body worn cameras to capture incidents in the jails is critical because the video footage and audio recordings have proven invaluable to determining what occurred. Unfortunately, staffs’ use of BWC has not always been consistent.”
To make matters worse, after Maginley-Liddie asked the camera manufacturer to determine whether each one should still be in service, the review revealed hundreds of the cameras are no longer useful because they are too old, the report said.
“The monitor describes serious mismanagement of the body worn camera program, with inadequate equipment, inexcusable delays, and supervisory indifference to staff refusing to turn on the cameras,” said Mary Lynne Werlwas, director of Legal Aid’s Prisoners Rights Project.
“As a result, a critical pillar of oversight has disappeared. The city must quickly resolve its technical issues, hold vendors accountable, and return cameras to the jails immediately.”
The Correction Department press office did not respond to inquiries from The News.
Council Member Sandy Nurse of Brooklyn said the delay highlights “a severe lack of transparency and urgency.”
“It is deeply concerning that officers are often not wearing cameras and that many cameras are outdated,” Nurse said. “This failure to follow protocol leaves critical events undocumented, undermining accountability and safety.”
The controversy began May 3 when the captain’s Reveal Media D5 body-worn camera caught fire at the George R. Vierno Center on Rikers Island, The News previously reported.
She was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where she was treated for smoke inhalation and released.
Declaring “safety is paramount,” Maginley-Liddie then issued a department-wide order withdrawing all 3,480 cameras from service “out of an abundance of caution” with the review. *The investigation is expected to take one to two weeks,” her spokeswoman said at the time.
The commissioner ordered all serious incidents to be documented with hand-held cameras. The jail system is also equipped with hundreds of surveillance cameras.
The Correction Department first began using body cameras in July 2015 , when the first 100 officers were outfitted with the devices following a settlement after the city fought for years to block their introduction.
Reveal Media did not respond to emails from The News.
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