The NYPD ordered 2,000 officer to ditch their body cameras after a Manhattan cop who was wearing a particular model yanked off the device moments before it exploded.
A 34th Precinct cop in Inwood detected smoke coming out of the underside of his Axon AB2 camera attached to his jacket on Monday and immediately removed it.
The device 'ignited' once the unidentified police officer took off his coat, the NYPD said in a press release Tuesday.
He was taken to a hospital 'out of an abundance of caution,' the statement said, where he was treated and released after suffering ringing to his ears due to the explosion.
'The incident revealed a potential issue with the battery inside the camera,' the NYPD said.
An Axon 2 body camera (pictured) exploded on Monday after an NYPD officer from the 34th precinct noticed that it caught camera
The NYPD said it would remove all 2,000 Axons out of the 23,000 body cameras in use
The NYPD later revealed that all of its 2,000 Axons were being pulled from use —accounting for only a small share of the 23,000 body-worn cameras owned by the force.
The department also pointed out that it was already within the process of getting rid of the older Axons for the newer model: the Axon AB3.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea demanded for 'the immediate examination of all Axon AB2 model cameras' after the camera caught fire.
'Our top priority is keeping the men and women of the NYPD safe,' the statement read.
A NYPD spokesman later told the New York Post that 'by the end of business today, Dec. 7, all Axon AB2 cameras will have been inspected. If there is any sign of an issue — the back plate bulging out — the battery and back panel is being replaced.'
The bizarre incident happened three years after another camera model used by the NYPD exploded. Some 3,000 Vievu LE-5 cameras were removed by the department, cops said at the time.
As of 2016, about 47 percent of 15,328 general-purpose law enforcement agencies in the US had bought body-worn cameras
3,000 Vievu model LE-5 cameras (pictured) were removed from the department after one caught fire in 2018
Body-worn cameras are increasingly being used by U.S. law enforcement agencies and often play a central role in high-profile incidents. But wide disparities remain in how they are employed and when the footage is made public.
Conflicting witness accounts of the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown, a mlack man, in Ferguson, Missouri, led former President Barack Obama's administration to fund body-worn camera programs across 32 states.
As of 2016, about 47 percent of the 15,328 general-purpose law enforcement agencies in the US had bought cameras, according to a 2018 report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the most recent study measuring nationwide usage.
Larger agencies were more likely to adopt the devices. One
