New Philadelphia, Ohio (WJER) -The city’s police chief says his department can now record almost all of their traffic stops.

Mike Goodwin says he used a federal justice assistance grant to purchase two new dashboard-cameras for just over $9,000. He says these will replace two of the cameras they already have equipped on six of their patrol vehicles. 

“This should last us for a number of years. We would probably, as our budget goes through this year, some of the city monies that I have available, I would like to purchase two more cameras, and that way we would have new cameras in our K9 car along with our school resource vehicle,” he says.

Goodwin says these cameras allow them to record each traffic stop conducted, and even capture other elements of an off-camera situation.

“The audio of the traffic stop can be heard also. When we would go to a call and we would be in a business or a house, though we don’t take the cameras with us, they are outside and they are pointed toward the house or down the street, we are still picking up the audio recording,” he explains.

Goodwin says the equipment becomes very useful in court when they have to refer to evidence. He says this will help in situations involving impaired drivers, domestic calls and disputed traffic citations.

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