11/29/2016
Activists call on Stringer, de Blasio not to sign police body camera contract
By Addy Baird
11/29/2016 12:58 PM EDT
A small group of community activists rallied in the rain outside City Comptroller Scott Stringer's office Tuesday morning to call on Stringer, Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill to refrain from signing a contract with police body camera company VieVu without a field test.
"[This] could mean the difference between life in jail and a defective product," said Johnnie Green, the senior pastor at Mount Neboh Baptist Church and the president and CEO of Mobilizing Preachers and Communities, a group of pastors. "I am urging our elected officials to put the safety of police officers before cost effectiveness."
Earlier this year, Green and MPAC joined forces with anti-de Blasio campaign New York City Deserves Better to look for a primary challenger to de Blasio in the 2017 mayoral election. At the time, Green hit de Blasio on the number of state and federal investigations into his administration, a note he touched on Tuesday as well, saying that if the city has money to spend on defending the mayor, it has money to spend on high quality body cameras for police officers.
The activists argue that the VieVu cameras drop frames and have a field view of only 95 degrees, meaning that what the cameras capture could leave out evidence or that the quality of the cameras might mean that their footage would not qualify as evidence in court.
"We urge you, we plead with you to do the right thing," Green said.
The police department announced earlier this month that it would be moving forward with the $6.4 million VieVu contract. A second bid came from the company's rival, Taser, for $17.2 million.
Taser has actively worked to push the city away from VieVu in an attempt to revive its bid for the lucrative body camera contract. Ahead of the City Council's Oct. 13 contract hearing, a consultant working with Taser contacted at least one city elected official, as well as religious leaders, to express doubts about VieVu cameras. Those efforts appear to have included Green, who held a press conference lambasting VieVu in early October. Green was also a witness at the October procurement hearing , where he expressed concern about the City Council's limited role in the contract process.
Taser has also recently hired a lobbyist to specifically work with the City Council and Stringer's office as the company continues to work to reverse the police department's decision to give the contract to VieVu. Stringer's office must sign off on the contract before it is formally approved.
Green was joined Tuesday by retired NYPD inspector Dwayne Montgomery, who echoed his comments and recalled that, when he was on the force, the department made a switch from revolvers to automatic weapons and field tested the fi****ms before making the official change.
"We feel that the same should be considered for [the body cameras,]" Montgomery said. "It will reduce the urge for the police department to play Monday morning quarterback."
In a statement following the Tuesday rally, the NYPD's deputy commissioner of public information said, "After a long and vigorous selection process which included a 9 person evaluation committee, Vievu was chosen as the best body camera option for the NYPD."
Stringer's press secretary Tyrone Stevens responded to the call in a statement emailed Monday. "While we have not received this particular contract, when or if we do, we will review it pursuant to our Charter mandate," he said. "We cannot and do not reject contracts on the basis of a disagreement with a particular policy - the City Charter is clear on this. As always and with every vendor, we'll closely review this contract if and when it reaches our office."
The press conference follows a letter Montgomery and Green signed along with a number of other activists, retired law enforcement and faith leaders sent to the mayor, the comptroller and the police commissioner asking that they not sign the VieVu contract.
