County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty bestowed what one might call a parting gift upon the Cleveland Division of Police: a $500,000 grant to fund the installation of dash cameras in about 275 cruisers. If it seems odd that the department wasn't already using dash cams, McGinty would agree; he cited the costly investigation into the shooting deaths of Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell as Exhibit A in the need for the cameras.
"Grand juries will be able to see exactly what happened and hear what was said," McGinty wrote[1] in the wake of the Michael Brelo acquittal. "Cams will prevent a Blue Wall from obstructing the view. The dash and body cams will be an unblinking eyewitness to the true facts of every crime."
To wit: Imagine a dash cam in officer Frank Garmback's car on Nov. 22, 2014.
The city will install Taser cameras — made by the same company that makes the police department's body cameras — and will take on an annual cost of a bout $128,000 to keep the equipment up to snuff. The dash cams and body cams will sync up when in use during, say, a speed chase or an arrest or an officer-involved shooting.
Now, about the money: The $500,000 comes from a criminal forfeiture pool at the prosecutor's office. Following a verdict (or a guilty plea), the courts may seize a defendant's property and return it to, e.g., the prosecutor's office as cash value. McGinty has maintained the $500,000 grant as a standing offer to Cleveland for almost two years now. (The city insists it had been taking its time to study various types of dash cams.) Source: www.bing.com
