Greater Sudbury Police hope to record crime with dash-cams

Greater Sudbury Police are testing cameras in four police cruisers to see how well they canrecord crimesas they're being committed.

Officers mayenter the video recordingsasevidence during the investigation and prosecution of offences such as impaired driving, said Deputy Police Chief Al Lekun.

The devices will also be used for training purposes, should there be complaints made about the police, he said.

"It helps us to improve the transparency of our police service and the interactions that we have with the public. It also provides us with great evidence in relation to some of the offences we might be investigating," said Lekun.

"We want to leverage this technology to become more efficient and effective."

Camera footage will providebetter evidence for police

Each car with the system will have two cameras one to record what's occurring in front of a vehicle, and another to record what's happening at the rear seat of a police car.

The total cost for the cameras and hardware purchased for this pilot projectis approximately $40,500.

Constable Rick Carr, who works in traffic management, has been testing out the camera system in his vehicle since July.

The technology provides better and more accurate information if evidence needs to be presented in court, said Carr.

"There's complaints every day on our major intersections about people running red lights and people running stop signs. [These charges are] very hard to enforce," Carr said. "Now having camera footage, the courts will see what we see."

If the pilot project goes well, police hope to eventually install the technology in more police cars.