The New York City Police Department has been working for
years to test and outfit its entire force with body cameras, with a goal
of having one for every officer by next year.
That plan appears to have hit a snag: a camera worn by an officer in
Staten Island last night began smoking and “burst into flames,”
prompting the NYPD to pull them from use while it investigates.
According to The Daily Beast,
the incident occurred around midnight in Staten Island, and involved a
Vievu model LE-5 camera. An official told the publication that “It
unexpectedly began to smoke and fell from his shirt to the ground,”
where “it then caught fire and was damaged.” In a statement,
the NYPD says that it’s been made “aware of a possible product defect,”
and that nobody was injured when the battery “exploded.”
The NYPD says that it’s investigating the cause of the defect. According
to the statement, Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill “has directed
that the continued use and distribution of the LE-5 model cameras be
suspended effective immediately.” The department says that while
officers assigned an LE-5 camera are to turn them in to their commands
as a precaution, but those assigned an LE-4 camera are to continue using
them. The Daily Beast notes that around 2,990 cameras are affected, out of the 15,500 that the NYPD currently fields.
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