The NYPD is in the process of outfitting all of its officers with body cameras. NY1 Criminal Justice Reporter Dean Meminger takes an exclusive look at how the agency investigating police misconduct is preparing for all that video.

The Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) is gearing up for what will be an explosion of video evidence.

"We have already had more than 70 cases that involve body-worn camera footage," CCRB Executive Director Jonathan Darche said.

And that's only since April, when the NYPD rolled out its body camera pilot program. About one thousand police officers now wear the tiny cameras, and the number is growing each month.

So, the CCRB, which investigates complaints of police misconduct and abuse, has hired a video forensics expert.

He's training review board investigators on how to dissect what they are really seeing in a video. NY1 was given an exclusive look at the training.

"They will be able to estimate the height and weight of people," Darche said. "They will be able to estimate the amount of force that someone is using in an encounter."

The review board said that in 2013 about four percent of complaints it received had video evidence. In 2016, that jumped to 18 percent, and that's largely surveillance and cell phone videos. The rollout of the body camera program is going to increase the percentages even more.

"Body-worn cameras video footage is another tool for us, right?" CCRB Senior Adviser Jerika Richardson said. "It is important and critical for both the officers and civilians that are engaged in the encounters."

"We already have cases where we can end up having more than a dozen videos because we have cell phone video, we have surveillance, and then we have 12 officers responding to the scene with body-worn cameras," CCRB Deputy Dir of Training Jennifer Jarett said.

The review board said there is no doubt that video is helpful.

So far this year, when video evidence is available, the board is able to make determinations in 53 percent of cases, compared to 39 percent when there is no video.

Although video doesn't always tell the full story, it can be an impartial piece of evidence, unless it is manipulated.

"Sometimes, somebody passes a video on to somebody else, and then somebody yet, and then it gets to us finally," CCRB Chief of Investigations Chris Duerr said. "We need to be able to tell, 'Are we looking at the real original raw footage?'"

So as part of the training, CCRB investigators are also learning how to spot doctored footage, in part by looking at data attached to video files.