WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports | Ridgeland Police upgrade patrol cars

Ridgeland Police upgrade patrol cars

By Jaime Dailey - bio | email

RIDGELAND, SC (WTOC) - These days budgets are tight everywhere, even at police departments, with little money for new equipment.

But The Ridgeland Police Department is using money they've earned through good enforcement to help beef up their patrol cars and keep the streets safe.

Officers like Lt. Joey Ginn with the Ridgeland Police Department spend countless hours in their patrol car. Now upgraded video equipment installed in their patrol cars is making the job easier and more efficient.

"Everything that you see on the windshield here is what you have for the entire system of the camera," said Lt. Ginn. "Before we had a big box that was in the trunk."

Lt. Ginn says they not only have more space, but it's more convenient because the view finder is right in the corner of the rear view mirror and a camera is built into the mirror as well as to video the back of the patrol car.

"All of the controls on the camera are located on the mirror itself," said Lt. Ginn. "You can zoom in and get it to go in as far as you want."

When officers pull into the parking lot here at the Police Station all of the recorded video is transmitted to a remoter server and within minutes that video can be viewed at any department computer.

"We don't have to worry about any type of issue with tapes getting lost or destroyed or any chain of custody matter when it comes to the evidence when we want to submit video as evidence," said Lt. Ginn.

"One of the biggest advantages is officer safety," said Capt. Frank Mador. "It's a big advantage for any law enforcement officer. Let's say on a traffic stop, you get a violation. the digital video is much more clear than the VHS and then when you bring it into court, it's easier for people to see even if you blow the picture up."

The best part is, tax payers didn't have to pay a penny for the new equipment.

"We use federally seized drug money that we've been awarded from DEA. If we did a sieze and got awarded up to 80 percent of that seizure," said Capt. Mador.

It cost about $80,000 to outfit all of the department's patrol cars with the video cameras and all of the equipment.

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