The city Department of Correction temporarily pulled almost 3,500 body-worn cameras after one caught fire and injured a correction captain, the department said Saturday.
The captain was on duty in the George R. Vierno Center on Rikers Island Friday when her Reveal Media D5 body-worn camera spontaneously ignited, said department press secretary Annais Morales.
She’s “obviously shaken up, I mean you’re wearing a body camera and it goes on fire, it’s certainly a pretty traumatic situation,” said Patrick Ferraiuolo, president of the Correction Captains’ Association. “But thank God, according to what I’m told, no serious injuries.”
Medics brought the captain to Mt. Sinai Hospital where she was treated for smoke inhalation and released, Morales said.
“The safety of our staff is paramount, which is why I am removing all body-worn cameras from the service out of an abundance of caution while we investigate how and why this incident occurred,” Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie said in a statement.
Maginley-Liddie issued the department-wide order Saturday afternoon, ordering supervisors to collect the 3,480 body-worn cameras worn by uniformed staff, and to store them in a control room.
Read the full story from the New York Daily News.
