The St. Louis Police Department held a press conference today (Mon., Aug. 24) to announce its decision to purchase and install in-car cameras in twenty of its police cars. These cameras capture audio and video and record video of inside and outside the vehicle.
“These cameras will not only protect citizens and officers by recording exactly what’s said and done, but when used in court, they will also give everyday citizens a real-world picture of what our officers face day in and day out,” said Police Chief Dan Isom. “We will continue to seek grant funding to expand this program in hopes of getting cameras in every patrol car in our fleet.”
Isom stressed the importance of these cameras in helping with trials, especially trials dealing with police officer misconduct. Isom mentioned that in cities where these in-car cameras are in place, there has been an increase in convictions and guilty pleas in court. Also there have been many police officer misconduct claims proven false.
The twenty police cars equipped with these new additions will be spread out throughout the St. Louis area.
“The cameras will be in the cars by the end of October or the beginning of November,” Lt. Tom Pecich said. The St. Louis Police Department is following the trend of many other cities that already have these devices in all of their police cars – including Detroit and Dallas.
The in-car camera installation is made possible by a $100,000 donation the St. Louis Police Department received from the St. Louis Police Foundation.
Chief Isom would like to have in-car cameras in all of the cars, but the estimated cost for furnishing about 300 St. Louis police cars is an estimated 1.5 million dollars.