Proposed bill would use sales tax, drug forfeiture funds to buy dash cams for JCPD

Jefferson City police cruisers could get new dash cameras.

A proposed bill would use sales tax money and drug forfeiture funds to replace the old cameras, which police say don’t even work.

“We don’t have any now that are reliable, ” said Jefferson City Police Chief Roger Schroeder. “That’s just kind of a product of not having funding.”

Schroeder said the department started using the in-car cameras back in 2005, but the life spans of those cameras are ending.

“At first, we were fixing the cameras as they broke, but availability and technology, such as it was, we discovered that, first of all, that’s very expensive and secondly we might end up with multiple systems that wouldn’t integrate with one another,” he said.

JCPD said the newer cruisers don’t even have dash cameras in them at all, because the old technology doesn’t work with the new.

The total cost of the project is $175,757.92. But according to the proposal, $85,000 would come from drug forfeiture money.

“I know that the funding, we were going to use some of the money from Sales Tax F and some from drug forfeiture money and that’s using the system that allows for monies and proceeds from drug sales and the drug industry to be awarded to the law enforcement agencies that seized that property and money,” Schroeder said.

“Sales Tax F” is the term for sales tax money that can be used from 2012 to 2017.

While dash cameras are not required, Schroeder said it’s a system that is beneficial to more than just the police department.

“It’s one of those situations that cameras help law enforcement, they help the community in many ways and they help the justice system,” he said.

The money JCPD is requesting would pay for 27 Panasonic Arbitrator HD in-car video cameras.

The bill was introduced to the Jefferson City Council Monday night and is expected to be voted on later this month.