NYPD plans 23,000 body cams. Number on streets now: 0

Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio says his body camera plan, announced during a proposed labor deal last month with the police officer's union, is crucial to restoring trust between officers and the communities they serve, "creating an atmosphere of transparency and accountability for the good of all."

The 2014 killing of Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri, and other deaths at the hands of police around the U.S. led to increased demands that officers be issued wearable cameras to deter misconduct and document shootings and other clashes.

[...] departments around the country began making progress.

San Francisco's police force, which had no cameras last fall, now has at least 250 in use.

[...] Baltimore, which erupted in riots following the 2015 death of Freddie Gray from a spinal injury suffered in police custody, have about 600 officers with cameras since a May rollout of an $11.6 million program.

Some city council members and pastors, concerned by the chatter, called on the police department to better vet the contract after reports that other departments had problems with the cameras.

[...] the cameras won't solve a police department's problems, they'll only help reveal them, said Frank Merenda, a former NYPD captain who is now an assistant professor of criminal justice at Marist College.