All 3,000 cameras worn by the city’s corrections department were pulled Saturday, a day after an employee at Rikers Island Correctional Facility was injured when a camera caught fire, The Post has learned.
The union called for a complete safety review after the captain’s body camera caught fire on Friday, officials said.
“They’re going to pull them over,” said Patrick Ferraiolo, president of the Correctional Officers Association. “We will not bring them back on staff until we are sure they are safe.”
Initial reports said the officer suffered burns from camera shots, but authorities later said she suffered smoke inhalation.
“She went to the hospital but was not admitted,” he said. “She’s okay, but she’s a little traumatized.”
It is not clear what caused the cameras to catch fire, but Ferraiolo noted that some contained lithium batteries.
DOC’s more than 3,000 body-worn cameras are assigned to all uniformed employees and are similar to those used by the NYPD, but are not from the same manufacturer, officials said.
Benny Bossio, president of the Correctional Officers Benevolent Association, sent a statement to members saying the city and DOC commissioner had agreed to pull the cameras at his request.
“DOC is going to temporarily take everything away.” [body worn camera’s] “Until further notice, we will be taking your device offline to conduct a safety review,” the message reads.
The investigation is expected to take one to two weeks.
In 2018, the New York City Police Department removed about 3,000 body cameras from its officers after one of the body cameras worn by a Staten Island police officer exploded into flames.
The department was in the early stages of equipping its 23,000 police officers with cameras. Now everyone has them.
In 2021, the NYPD removed 2,000 more police body cameras after one exploded and caught fire in Manhattan.
Both police officers suffered minor injuries.
