NYPD police radios may go dark by late 2023 or 2024 — potentially cutting off the public, volunteer emergency groups and the media from day-to-day radio communications.
More importantly, it may leave decisions on publicly disclosing news incidents largely in the hands of the police themselves, according to sources within and outside the department.
Some police officers are cheering the news. Two credentialed members of the media recall pulling off the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn onto an emergency lane to investigate a crash. An NYPD Highway Patrol officer approached the vehicle, and both photographers displayed their NYPD issued press cards.
“I can’t wait for the city to take those radios away from you guys. I don’t like the media,” said the officer to press photographers Jon Farina and Lloyd Mitchell of amNewYork Metro. Without ordering them to leave the highway, he issued Farina a summons for stopping off the highway to investigate a potential story.