A pilot program for police officers to begin wearing body cameras this month cleared a major hurdle when it was approved last week by the federal monitor overseeing changes to the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk program.
But the court-ordered pilot, the test for a rollout to all 23,000 city patrol officers by 2019, could be stalled this week by legal challenges from civil liberties lawyers and police labor unions. The lawyers said there were serious flaws in the draft policy that spells out when officers must use the cameras and how the resulting footage should be handled.
Darius Charney, who represents the plaintiffs in Floyd v. City of New York, the case that prompted the court order, said the case lawyers would challenge the program in federal court in Manhattan this week. He said they would seek to broaden the circumstances in which officers must record and limit when officers may review footage.
“These are issues that get at the heart of what the policy is supposed to do,” Mr. Charney said. ...