Police: Skip YouTube and upload eyewitness videos to us

Videos or photographs implicating members of the police force in acts of misconduct will soon be directly uploadable to the New York Police Department, representatives reported yesterday.

The announcement from Police Commissioner Ray Kelly came after a recent string of videos of NYPD officers engaged in questionable practices were posted on YouTube.

An NYPD officer forcefully dismounting a cyclist participating in a Critical Mass bike ride was caught on video by an eyewitness and uploaded to the popular video site. The video has been viewed over one million times, and the 22 year-old officer has since been stripped of his badge pending an investigation.

Such eyewitness and CCTV videos have proven to be damning evidence to the police officers pictured within. In 2007, a video of an off-duty Chicago police officer drunkenly beating a female bartender faced 14 counts of aggravated battery, official misconduct, intimidation, communicating with a witness, and conspiracy.

Kelly admits that eyewitness videos are a fact of life now that "everybody has a camera in their telephones." He says the technology for these pictures and videos to be uploaded is being put in place.

Despite the announcement's timing, the ability to upload eyewitness videos will not be limited to police misconduct; videos of any criminal behavior will be accepted by the NYPD.