NYPD’s Body Cam Agreement Comes With A $1.88 Billion Price Tag

In a tentative deal that will hopefully have an indirect impact on the Black Lives Matter Movement and other issues of police brutality, NYPD’s largest officer union and the city’s mayor, Bill de Blasio reached an agreement which will require all patrol cops to wear body cameras. The deal comes along with a hefty price tag of $1.88 billion.

The deal in question which was announced late last month (Jan. 31), requires the body cam initiative to be fully implemented by 2019, Newsday reports. This was not an overnight decision. In 2013, U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin discovered that the NYPD’s use of “Stop and Frisk” violated the constitutional rights of non-white New Yorkers. From there, the NYPD initiated a body camera pilot in the following year, 2014, with trials at six commands throughout the city utilizing 54 officers.

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But, the men and women in blue have been working without contract since 2010. Since then, the officers have been on protest against the mayor. They’ve picketed the official mayoral residence, his gym and other events. Now that the new contract is drawn up, it seems that the mayor is going to be repaying “New York’s finest” in salary increases. In addition to the 2.25 percent “neighborhood policing” bonus that goes into effect March 15, the average officer’s salary will rise from $63,580 to $73,874, not including overtime. For rank-and-file officers, their salary will also increase by 11.73 percent, while the average member of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association will get $12,235 in retroactive pay, compensating for previous work done at an old pay rate.

The cost of the deal is said to be compensated by the lower salaries of newly hired officers.

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