A new federal grant might make it easier for Chapel Hill police to keep their eyes on the road.
The Chapel Hill Town Council approved Tuesday the use of $98,500 in funding from the U.S. Department of Justice that will be used to put digital cameras in about 14 police vehicles.
Officer Mike Stone, who will install the technology, said the cameras will offer a variety of benefits over the analog recorders now in use. A pre-recording feature will allow officers to access footage shot 30 seconds to a minute before the camera is activated.
“We can get the actual violation on camera,” Stone said. “It’s pretty handy.”
Analog cameras can’t record what an officer sees before he turns on the siren, he said. The cameras might also have crash sensors that will automatically turn on the system if the car takes a jolt, he added.
“It, coupled with pre-event recording, will help us get a better picture of what happened in case of a crash,” Stone said.
The digital system also means a greater integration with computers, which will help with information sharing and gathering.
Stone said the DVD RAM in each camera makes it easy to send the videos as e-mail attachments or to burn them to a CD, allowing officers to consolidate information. All the cameras are expected to go in marked cars, Stone said. There are 20 to 30 in the fleet.
With the old analog systems still being used in five squad cars, cameras now will be in the majority of cars on the road, Stone said.
