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NEW YORK (AP) - The New York Police Department's largest union has reached a tentative agreement with the city on a new labor contract that includes retroactive pay raises and a requirement that all NYPD officers wear body cameras by the end of 2019, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday.
"This agreement provides the compensation and benefits the world's finest police department deserves, while outfitting the entire force with body cameras and delivering the transparency and policing reforms at the center of effective and trusted law enforcement," de Blasio said.
The executive board for the 23,000-member Patrolmen's Benevolent Association approved the pact, which will then be voted on by the union's rank and file.
"We perform the most difficult police job anywhere in the world, and the challenges and dangers we face each day continue to grow," PBA President Patrick Lynch said. "The agreement that we announce here today recognizes those challenges and continues to move New York City police officers toward a package of compensation and benefits that is equal to our status as the finest police officers in the nation."
As part of the deal, the PBA agreed to drop it lawsuit against the city involving body cameras.
A spate of deaths at the hands of police across the country has led to demands that officers be issued wearable cameras, but costs and union resistance has slowed that effort.