An NYPD officer | Flickr Body cameras aid police misconduct investigations, but CCRB faces hurdles getting footage

The city’s police watchdog board has been able to stand up more complaints against police officers using body camera footage — but the NYPD has dragged its feet on turning the tapes over to investigators, a new report found.

The Civilian Complaint Review Board reports that the number of complaints where it was able to either substantiate a complaint or clear the officer on the merits surged to 76 percent when it had body camera footage, up from just 39 percent with no video, according to a report set to be released Thursday.


But the board found that the amount of time it took for police to hand over footage doubled in the first six months of 2019, and the NYPD also denied more requests. Since the body camera program began, the board has requested footage more than 4,000 times, but only received it half the time.

They also reported that officers often failed to use their cameras properly, and sometimes obstructed them intentionally.

“Obtaining [body-worn camera] footage has not come without difficulties. As is the case in many jurisdictions, the process of getting police oversight agencies more streamlined access to [body-worn camera] footage has been fraught with challenges,” CCRB chair Fred Davie said in a statement accompanying the report.

The NYPD has given body-worn cameras to all of its uniformed patrol officers, who are supposed to turn them on when conducting police activity.

In full investigations, CCRB substantiated complaints against cops 31 percent of the time when they had body camera video, compared to 13 percent without video. They also exonerated more officers in 30 percent of claims with video, compared to 20 percent without.

By contrast, complaints went unsubstantiated — meaning investigators did not have enough evidence to determine what happened — in just more than half of cases with no tape, compared to 23 percent with body camera footage.

In particular, CCRB was able to substantiate 56 percent of discourtesy allegations and 37 percent of offensive language allegations using video, compared to 19 percent and 15 percent without.

“This Report’s findings firmly establish that video footage is integral to determining whether an officer behaved professionally or engaged in misconduct,” the report says.

But the board found a big jump in delays in getting their hands on body camera footage. In the final months of 2018, it took an average of 20 days for the NYPD to produce footage — that jumped to 42 days by summer of 2019.

Over the same time, the NYPD denied more requests citing confidentiality and privacy laws. They also redacted more footage — up to 63 percent of videos in the second quarter of 2019 — and often provided no explanation for why redactions were made.

“Restrictions in gaining access to [camera] footage can significantly compromise the integrity of CCRB’s investigations and negatively impact the use and effectiveness of [body-worn cameras] for oversight,” the report says.

In November, the oversight board and the police department reached an agreement to give investigators more access to video, creating a secure facility for them to view it and promising it would be available within 25 days.

The oversight board is urging the NYPD to amend its patrol guide to explicitly prohibit officers from interfering with body camera footage, after finding several incidents where cops signaled to each other to prevent or halt the recording of police misconduct.

They found that officers “often failed to properly use their cameras” by turning them on too late, too early or not at all during an interaction. There were also technical challenges, like cameras getting covered by winter clothing or coming off during a physical run-in.

The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.