On Monday, President Obama revealed a multimillion-dollar plan to outfit local police departments with body cameras. In response, NYPD officers will reportedly start wearing the devices today.
Police sources told the New York Daily News that the department will introduce its pilot program a month earlier than scheduled due to a national call for police to wear cameras that will capture their interactions with civilians.
The Daily News also notes that this move comes as a Staten Island grand jury approaches a decision on whether or not to charge an NYPD officer for his role in Eric Garner's death. Garner, 43, died in July after officer Daniel Pantaleo placed him in a chokehold. It also comes a week after a grand jury elected not to indict Ferguson, Mo. police officer Darren Wilson for fatally shooting Michael Brown in the St. Louis suburb in August.
[via New York Daily News]
