Feb. 10, 2023 Port Authority police will soon be wearing body cameras under a new 26-month labor contract approved by the police union and the authority’s board.
By Larry Higgs Source NJ.com (TNS) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
NEW YORK — Port Authority police will soon be wearing body cameras under a new 26-month labor contract approved by the police union and the authority’s board.
Port Authority board members approved two labor contacts Thursday, one with the Police Benevolent Association, which includes an agreement to equip officers with body cams, and a second with the Transport Workers Union local 1400, representing a total of more than 2,000 workers.
Both unions cover the bi-state authority’s two largest two employee unions and the largest civilian union, said Michael Farbiarz, Port Authority council.
Body cameras are being delivered, but there is no specific date for when officers will begin to wear them, said Rick Cotton, authority executive director.
“The camera are being delivered as we speak and will be distributed to police and we’ll move forward,” he said, adding he expects officers will be wearing them “soon.”
Port Authority officials announced two years ago that body cameras were one of 24 initiatives the agency was pursuing in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, Cotton said. That death resulting in the Apr. 20, 2021, conviction of former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin and police reforms in the state and across the country.
New York state law requires state troopers to wear body cameras, but not all police departments. NYPD began a phase in of cameras between 2017 and 2019.
The PBA and authority discussed implementation of body cameras for 18 months, said Kevin O’Toole, board chairman. A New Jersey state law that took effect in June 2021 requires body cameras
The new 26-month contract with the 1,550 union police officers provides a total wage increase of six percent over the life of the contracts and a $3,000 yearly stipend for wearing the cameras, which officers are legally entitled to. PBA members ratified it on Jan. 10 and the board unanimously approved it Thursday
The 26-month TWU contract with the unions 500 members also provides for a six percent raise over the life of the pact which has a retroactive start date of July 28, 2022, to Sept. 27, 2024.
Both unions and the authority agreed on a 26-month time period due to economic uncertainties.
The PBA and TWU contracts are the first of 23 labor pacts that Cotton and O’Toole made a priority to settle when they were appointed in August 2017. The authority’s 23 unions had been working without new contracts when they arrived and the last of them, with a PATH rail union, was settled last October.
“The first round of agreements has now expired. These two are the first of a new round of negotiations,” Cotton said. “We’re continuing the process with other unions to get through all the contracts.”