That’s because New York remains one of
only five states where the primary state law
enforcement agency is not equipped with
dashboard cameras, according to a nationwide
Associated Press survey.
Four of those states — Rhode Island, New
Hampshire, New York and Massachusetts — are
in the Northeast.
Hawaii’s primary state law enforcement agency
also does not have dashboard cameras, but it
doesn’t have a state-level highway patrol, so it
has far fewer interactions with citizens.
“We don’t know what happened, other than
what they say happened,” said Luke Patterson’s
father, Mark Patterson.
The New York agency lacks body cameras too.
It says it once employed VHS and later digital
cameras on a limited number of vehicles, but
it didn’t have the funds to maintain the VHS
equipment and the digital cameras required
“costly maintenance.”
“It’s astonishing that the New York State Police
have no video accountability,” said Christopher
Dunn, legal director of the New York Civil
Liberties Union.
While use of dashboard cameras is common,
the AP survey found most primary state law
enforcement agencies do not have body cameras.
More than a dozen reported implementing body
cameras in some form or taking part in a pilot
program. Those include agencies for the two
largest states by population, California and Texas.
New York City’s police department, the nation’s
biggest, finished its rollout of about 20,000
body cameras this year.