NYC may hand citizen watchdog group ‘direct access’ to NYPD bodycams — and cops aren’t happy

Big Apple lawmakers are considering a bill that would give the NYPD’s civilian watchdog group “direct access” to police bodycam footage — and cops are fuming about it.

The apparently first-of-its-kind law pitched by Council Speaker Adrienne Adams would give the Civilian Complaint Review Board real-time access to video from body-worn police cameras to speed up the board’s investigations into alleged police misconduct and brutality claims — although the bill faces an uphill battle.

“Bills like this are a major reason cops are quitting in droves,” NYPD PBA President Patrick Hendry railed on X. “Who wants to work in a system where people who don’t value or understand your work are given direct, real-time access to second-guess your every move?

“City Council members need to understand that every time they support a bill like this, they’re making their constituents less safe because more cops will head out the door,” he said.

Police brass said the move could also face logistical setbacks — in part because similar laws don’t exist anywhere in the country and could face unexpected legal hurdles.

“Not measured in days, weeks and months, but years,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Legal Matters Michael Gerber told lawmakers Wednesday. “Anything about this is speculative.”

Introduced last week, the proposal is now before the council’s Committee on Public Safety.

The bill, also backed by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, would give the CCRB “direct access to all footage recorded by officer body-worn cameras,” providing the board with “real time connectivity to network servers hosting digital files of body-worn camera footage.”

Council supporters said the measure is necessary to speed up CCRB reviews.

A city comptroller’s report released last month found that NYPD oversight and monitoring of bodycam footage is “lacking,” and 53% of cameras were not even activated during a limited review.

Police transparency is also lacking when it comes to bodycams based on requests for the videos under the state Freedom of Information Law, the report said. The law requires an agency to respond to requests within 25 business days at most — and yet the average NYPD reply took 133 business days, the report said.

Of the 5,427 FOIL requests reviewed by the comptroller, only 15% reportedly received a reply within 25 days.

The new bill remained in limbo after Wednesday’s committee hearing and could linger there for some time unless more sponsors on the council buy in.