New Jersey officials said they will use artificial intelligence to analyze Paterson police body camera footage as part of a reform effort following a state takeover of the police department earlier this year.
Officers are also required to get supervisors on the scene whenever a person is in crisis or being arrested during a patrol, under a series of reforms that New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin announced on Tuesday. Platkin’s office took over the department in March, shortly after the death of Najee Seabrooks, a member of an antiviolence organization who was fatally shot by officers responding to a 911 call about his apparent mental health crisis.
“There are distinct initiatives, benchmarks and measurements that will help measure our progress,” Platkin said at a press conference Tuesday. “But we also know that the true test will involve subjective measures. Do people feel safe? Do people trust their police department and police officers?”
Isa Abbassi, a longtime NYPD official appointed by Platkin to oversee the Paterson takeover, detailed a lineup of initiatives either already implemented at the department or in the process of being rolled out.
A supervising officer is now required to be present at “all assignments of a person in crisis” — and to be “called to scene of all patrol arrests” under the strategic plan released on Tuesday. Officers must also be equipped with Tasers and pepper spray “to prevent unintended or avoidable uses of deadly force.”
Officials didn’t specifically mention Seabrooks’ death when discussing those measures.
Paterson will be the first department in the tristate area to use artificial intelligence to analyze all body camera footage, according to the strategic plan. It says the systems from body camera review company Truleo, which were procured through state funding, will be used to identify and review “critical events such as uses of force, pursuits, frisks, and noncompliance incidents and screens for…
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