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LAS: Police Body-Worn Cameras are No Substitute for Reform

A new 165-page report released as part of the court-ordered reform of the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices has revealed that NYPD officers equipped with body cams reported no “statistically significant changes in the number of arrests, arrests with force, summonses, domestic incident reports, and citizen crime complaint reports.”

City Hall and the NYPD have touted body-worn cameras as improving transparency and police accountability. But The Legal Aid Society and other public defenders say that although the presence of cameras may increase transparency, it is not enough alone to alter the behavior of police officers, as reported by the New York Daily News.

Corey Stoughton, Attorney-in-Charge of the Special Litigation Unit with the Criminal Defense Practice at The Legal Aid Society, said that the data showed the cameras are not “the robust instrument of police accountability” many hoped. “The actual evidence is quite depressing. There’s no effect on police behavior,” she said.