Uptown Pastors Raise Concerns Over NYPD Body Camera Supplier
Uptown pastors are protesting the Seattle-based company that has won the New York Police Department’s contract for the first 1000 body cameras.
The city signed the $6.4 million contract with Vievu– which designed and manufactures the cameras — on Sept. 30 for five years. A dozen clergy gathered at Mount Neboh Baptist Church in Harlem this month to formally ask Mayor Bill de Blasio to reconsider the supplier.
“The camera has a history of failure. It has a terrible record as it relates to losing data and more than 50 police departments around the country have rejected proposals to this camera,” said Johnnie Green, Jr., pastor at Mount Neboh Baptist Church and a leading voice against the Vievu contact.
Community activists, clergy and representatives from Vievu and its chief competitor — Taser International, also considered as a supplier of New York’s cameras — also spoke at a public hearing downtown on Oct. 13.
“We should not rush into a contract. We should fully investigate the issue,” said Isaiah Fields, vice president of Taser, one of many speakers challenging the Vievu contract.
Kevin Osbourne, pastor of Refuge Church of God in Brooklyn, took issue with the functionality of Vievu’s cameras. He wants the police department to have the necessary equipment to do its job, but with the best possible cameras.
“I want NYPD to be functioning and responding to emergencies. I want them to be able to have best equipment that will only help situations,” Osbourne said.
He did not want officers to spend time figuring out how to turn their body cameras on and off, Osbourne said. Green and other pastors who spoke at the public hearing agreed.
However, Jason Wine, vice president of engineering technology of Vievu, said the camera is simple to switch on.
Gray Hudkins, executive vice president of the Safariland Group, which owns Vievu, said that its cameras and Taser’s can both switch on and off. “Taser’s has a button; ours has a panel.” He added that police officers are able to switch the camera on and off by hand.
Safariland manufactures and distributes law enforcement and security products; Vievu is one of its top brands. Its cameras are currently used by police departments in Oakland and Cincinnati.
The Oakland Police Department has over 700 body-worn cameras in its inventory since implementing the program in 2010.
“In patrol, all of our officers are required to wear them. Our goal is to fully staff the department with body-worn cameras,” said Oakland Officer Johnna Watson.
Oakland’s incident report shows use of force incidents steadily decreasing since 2007, dropping nearly 100 between 2014 and 2015.
“We have seen a decrease in our use of force because of the cameras,” said Watson.
New OPD recruits are issued body cameras at the beginning of the six month police academy and receive two hours of training in their use, whereas active officers receive only 30 minutes’ training.
Community members at the hearing were concerned about Vievu cameras randomly deleting police footage, citing an incident in 2014 in which the OPD allegedly lost 25-percent of its video footage.
Hudkins of Safariland said the incident happened due to an “IT error during the upgrade process” of the program.
The local storage issue in Oakland occurred, he said, because OPD used its own department server. “We weren’t there to see what they did. Also they did not have a back-up,” Hudkins said, “We recommend strongly for all of our local storage customers to have a back-up.”
New York does. “NYPD chose a cloud-space solution, which automatically backs up at all times,” Hudkins said, adding that footage will never be deleted in that case.
Despite the contract already signed between Vievu and the city, Taser’s representative said the company is still willing to offer NYPD an opportunity to field test its cameras. Fields said that Taser could “offer 1000 cameras as a gift to the city, with no conditions.”
Outside the city building, a small group of Black Lives Matter members gathered to oppose the Vievu contract.
“We are protesting because the police should use a reputable company and Vievu has been an untrustworthy company. You have to be accountable and we’re paying taxes, so we should have a chance to choose,” said Nicole Parker, 30, a student from Staten Island at the rally outside the hearing.
“We’re there to protect the community, protect the officer,” Hudkins said of community complaints and officer-involved incidents. “We listen to their stories, and we take them into account.”
He added, “they are heart-wrenching stories to hear.”
Green has been actively involved with community issues during his ten years as Mount Neboh’s senior pastor. If he can impact laws and policy decisions that will make things better for the long run, he said, it’s worth the fight.
“If we can’t abort these cameras, I’m hoping during the trial period these cameras will prove to be inadequate and the city will decide to purchase a new brand,” Green said.
#technology #BlackLivesMatter #bodycameras #brooklyn #GrayHudkins #Harlem #IsaiahFields #JasonWine #JoannaWatson #JohnnieGreenJr #KevinOsbourne #MayorBilldeBlasio #MountNebohBaptistChurch #NicoleParker #Oakland #OaklandPD #OPD #pastors #RefugeChurchofGod #SafarilandGroup #Seattle #TaserInternational #Uptown #Vievu
