Rikers officers won’t wear body cameras all summer after one catches fire

Rikers Island corrections officers will not wear body cameras until at least September due to a technical problem with the devices, alarming watchdogs who say they are a critical tool for monitoring potentially violent interactions with inmates.

The nearly 3,500 body-worn cameras were removed from correctional officers’ uniforms in early May after a Rikers Island captain was burned by another who caught fire.

At the time, a spokesperson for the New York City Department of Corrections said the cameras were expected to be returned within a week or two after a review. But a report released Thursday evening by the federal agent overseeing the city’s jails found that all cameras have been removed for “at least” 10 more weeks.

Corrections spokesmen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Calling the use of body cameras “invaluable” in determining what is happening inside the notoriously violent Rikers Island jails, federal Comptroller Steve Martin urged prison officials in his report to reinstate the cameras at least on a continuous basis. He said they are needed “to prevent, detect and respond to excessive use of force” by officers against inmates.

The Rikers Island video footage has already helped investigators document violent and illegal behavior by officers and inmates. It has also been a source of controversy, with the Adams administration temporarily blocking the city’s jail watchdog, the Board of Correction, from accessing body cameras and surveillance footage following news reports based on the footage. That access was restored in October.

A 2022 corrections board investigation into in-custody deaths in the city relied on a police officer’s body camera to determine that officers failed to immediately provide medical care after an inmate, Elijah Muhammad, 31, was found unconscious in his cell. He died a short time later.

“The department cannot operate effectively without body-worn cameras,” corrections board member Bobby Cohen said in an interview. “If the used ones have passed their expiration date, the department should immediately obtain new ones or other types. There is too much violence in New York prisons and video is essential to reducing it. »

The videos reviewed and documented by the council have been a key way for the public to learn about prison conditions, which have deteriorated to the point that federal prosecutors are seeking a complete federal takeover of the Department of Corrections. A judge is expected to consider installing a receiver — an official who could override the mayor on how the prison operates — at a court hearing on July 9.

The cameras have also held correctional officers accountable, as the number of cutting and stabbings at Rikers has skyrocketed in recent years. Last year, the Federal Monitor reported that body-worn camera footage showed a captain failed to report the use of a weapon, as required, after an inmate stabbed one another to the head with a pen – an incident that led to the use of pepper spray. .

Last year, a corrections officer was also charged after he was caught on his body camera placing a sharp object in an inmate’s cell and misrepresenting it as recovered contraband. The incident took place after the officer used force against the inmate.

Body cameras began being deployed at Rikers in 2015, in accordance with the legal agreement on officers’ use of force that led to the appointment of the federal monitor. The Department of Corrections directive governing their use requires that they be activated in a wide range of circumstances, including during inmate escorts, any use of force against an inmate, inmate-on-inmate violence and during visits to housing areas.

But Martin, the comptroller, also said Rikers staff often didn’t follow guidelines about activating cameras when required. And some didn’t even wear cameras at all because there were not enough security personnel within the corrections department to attach the cameras to uniforms, he wrote in his report released Thursday.

After the May fire, the department removed the cameras and had the manufacturer, Reveal Media, evaluate them. That evaluation found that hundreds of cameras had exceeded the manufacturer’s recommended lifespan and needed to be removed from service.

A message left with a Reveal Media representative was not immediately responded to. A Department of Corrections review of purchase orders shows it has paid the company about $107,000 since 2017.

In 2018, the NYPD took away about 3,000 body cameras, made by another company, from officers after one of them exploded.

In addition to body-worn cameras, Rikers Island has fixed surveillance cameras and officers have access to handheld cameras.