NYPD is spending $US250,000 to install CCTV cameras in every police van by the end of 2016. All future vans will come equipped with cameras.
“This is not a direct result of the Freddie Gray situation but we wanted to take a look at prisoner safety and at officer safety,” says NYPD deputy commissioner Stephen Davis.
“A lot of times you have a lot of prisoners in the back of the van and no officer. We have to worry about keeping an eye on them – there’s also the possibility of an escape.”
To avoid injuries, police are told to help arrested suspects into and out of the vehicles because they are high off the ground, and suspects are rear-cuffed and sometimes wearing leg restraints.
The surveillance cameras will record during the course of the ride and there’s been no word on storage methods, upload methods or data retention. It wasn’t clear how long the footage would be stored on file but typical industry standards are 30 days. ♦
