New York State authorities recommended Thursday that Suffolk County police install automatic dashboard cameras in all patrol cars after an officer did not turn her dash cam on before fatally striking a Shirley teenager.
State Attorney General Letitia James’ Office of Special Investigation determined that Seventh Precinct Officer Sarah Tryon was not acting recklessly when she was speeding at 85 mph on William Floyd Parkway with her patrol car’s light and siren activated before she crashed into Anthony Stinson, who was crossing the road on his bicycle when he was struck, officials said. But investigators issued the recommendation that the police department install in patrol cars dash cams that automatically start recording when lights and sirens in response to the fact that Tryon did not turn her dash cam on before the fatal crash.
“The evidence does not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer’s conduct was a gross deviation from the standard that would have been observed by a reasonable officer in the same circumstances, or that the officer consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death,’ the attorney general’s office said in a statement. “There was not any evidence that the officer was impaired by drugs or alcohol, or that she was otherwise distracted at the time of the crash. OSI therefore will not pursue charges against the officer.”
Tryon was passing a vehicle in the left lane while responding to a medical emergency and had a green light when she struck Stinson at the corner of Adobe Drive shortly before 8 p.m. on Saturday, September 9, 2023, police and the attorney general’s office said. The police car then struck another vehicle stopped in traffic, a tree and two parked cars, but there were no other injuries reported. The victim was taken to a Stony Brook University Hospital, where he died of his injuries on Sept. 13.
The attorney general’s office noted that a police officer can only be charged with a crime — in this case, manslaughter — for causing a death while responding to a call if the officer was acting recklessly.
“She was purely reckless,” one of the half dozen witnesses that state investigators spoke with was quoted as saying in a 21-page report on the case that the attorney general released. “She was flying down William Floyd Parkway.”
The other witnesses were not as critical. Surveillance video footage confirms that the officer’s lights and sirens were activated at the time of the crash, but the dash cam footage did not capture the teen being struck. In her interview with state investigators, Tryon — who was hired by the police department a year before the crash — was aware of the rules that officers need to slow down before passing intersections when responding to calls. And the patrol car’s Event Data Recorder showed that she had slowed down to 44 mph three seconds before the crash, according to investigators.
The attorney general’s office said that equipping all patrol cars with dash cams that automatically record when officers activate the vehicle’s emergency lights would “foster transparency, accountability, and evidence gathering.”
The police department and Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine’s office declined to comment.
“We take all suggestions seriously and this is something that needs to be looked into to see if it’s viable,” Suffolk Legislator Stephen Flotteron (R-Brightwaters), who chairs the public safety committee, said.
Lou Civello, the president of the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents more than 1,800 rank-and-file patrol officers, said that legislators mandating automatic dash cams instead of having the devices negotiated as a part of the police contract would cause an increase in crime.
“These decisions are best made at the local level with labor at the table,” he said. “Any attempt to force a one-size-fits-all approach to policing will result in Long Island suffering the same fate as crime-ridden NY City.”
Having a dash cam video of the crash that killed Stinson would have helped the investigation, according to Maggie Bopp, an attorney with the Island-based law firm of Rappaport Glass Levine & Zullo LLP that represents the teen’s family in a $25 million lawsuit filed against the police department last year.
“If the dashboard camera was activated we would have had a front-row seat of what exactly occurred and what exactly was in view,” Bopp said. “While [the family] appreciates the investigation by the attorney general’s office, they’re disappointed by the determination, but we’re still pursuing our civil case based on what we know to have happened.”
The police department’s policy previously stated that its dash cams would be automatic, but that policy has since changed to require the devices be manually activated.
Irma Solis, the director of the Suffolk chapter of New York Civil Liberties Union, has said that leaving it up to officers when to turn dash cams on makes the devices effectively useless.
She told WSHU: “If they are given the discretion to activate it or not, the likelihood of them using their discretion to not turn it on is much higher.”
