NYPD pulls thousands of body cameras after one caught fire, exploded

The New York Police Department is pulling thousands of body cameras from the field after one of them caught on fire while a police officer was wearing it.

The Daily Beast reports that a Vievu model LE-5 body camera “burst into flames” early Sunday morning while an officer was wearing it right outside a Staten Island police precinct. According to the NYPD, “an officer retrieved a body-cam for deployment on a midnight tour and noticed there was smoke exiting from the bottom portal and immediately removed it. After it was safely removed, the device exploded.”

The officer wearing the faulty body camera was not injured.

Police Commissioner James O’Neill has instructed all police officers who were assigned the Vievu model LE-5 device to “immediately remove the cameras and bring them back to their commands.”

As for what caused the Vievu camera to catch fire, the NYPD believes the “incident revealed a potential for the battery inside the camera to ignite,” but is currently investigating.

At the beginning of the year, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, along with Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill, announced that by the end of 2018, all NYPD officers on patrol would be wearing a body cam. This was moved up from the city’s original projection that all officers would be equipped with body cameras by the end of 2019.

According to The Daily Beast, approximately 15,500 body cameras are currently deployed throughout the New York Police Department. Of those cameras, about 2,990 of them are the Vievu model LE-5. 

In May of this year, Axon, the law enforcement product company best known for making the Taser, acquired Vievu, which was considered a leader in the body camera industry.

“We are working closely with the NYPD to investigate this issue. The officer was not injured, however officer safety is of the upmost [sic] importance to Axon,” said an Axon spokesperson to Mashable. “We will do whatever is necessary to quickly and safely resolve this situation.”