Patrol vehicles may get cameras

The Costa Mesa Police Department will present a proposal for new high-tech digital video recording equipment at tonight’s City Council meeting.

For the past three years all department patrol cars have gone without any visual recording equipment, officials said.

The money will go toward the purchase of 49 in-car Mobile-Vision video recording systems from L3 Communications, outfitting every patrol car in the fleet.

Each system includes two cameras and an input unit that holds up to 10 hours of video. The new equipment saves time and manual labor, Lt. Allan Huggins said.

The systems offer an “added layer of protection to the community,” the proposal states, “reduce the likelihood of a confrontation by those who are aware they are being recorded; and decrease the likelihood of costly litigation.”

Police have also found that use of the recording equipment increases conviction rates, resolves probable cause issues in vehicle searches and clarifies many gray areas in a number of cases.

With the new equipment, each car automatically uploads all recordings as vehicles enter the parking lot at the rear of the station. Roughly 40 terra-bytes of hard-drive space have been set aside for storage of videos which are held for up to one year, Huggins said.

“The main thing we wanted to have was a wireless system,” Huggins said. “We didn’t want anything where they had to physically lug it inside to upload.”

The system additionally comes with a DVD burner to make copies of certain events, if needed.

In 2006, the city approved a budget of $462,248 for the purchase of new recording equipment. According to the proposal, the entire system will cost $440,356.04.

The previous system, employed between 1998 and 2004, used bulky VHS equipment stored in the trunk of every patrol car. That equipment quickly became obsolete and for the past three years all patrol cars have gone without any in-car recording, Huggins said.

In March 2006, a group of officers, each with technology know-how, organized a committee with the purpose of researching systems and recommending the best one to the department.

After visiting a number of trade shows in the area, the group honed in on five systems chosen for hands-on field testing. All five systems were set up at one time in five different patrol cars.

Officers using the systems were asked to submit a survey of the experience following their shifts, scoring each one on the clarity of picture, ease of use, the set-up inside the vehicle and how the system operates in the station.

L3 Communications’ equipment proved best in installation, repair and maintenance, and size, fitting securely into each vehicle without taking up too much space. Also, every other system besides L3’s either crashed, failed to re-boot or both at one point in the eight-week test drive.

KELLY STRODL may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at kelly.strodl@latimes.com.