Camcorders For Cops

Tuesday, November 14th 2006, 10:32 am

By: News On 6

Tulsa Police officer Gus Spanos was shot and killed in the line of duty 16 years ago, after his death the community rallied together. Citizens raised more than $400,000 for the Camcorders for Cops campaign.

But as News on 6 anchor Terry Hood found, they are very few of those cameras out on the road.

Originally the Tulsa Police Department hoped to outfit every police car with a camera, but the technology in 1993 just didn't cooperate. The cameras were big and bulky, and they took up a lot of space both on the dashboard and in the back seat. Most officers didn't even want one, it was simply too much of a hassle.

The cameras were hard mounted so they couldn't be moved, and the hot Oklahoma sun even melted a few. Plus, once they broke, there simply wasn't enough money to fix them.

The cameras of today are smaller, movable and don't take up so much space. This one is still behind the times, the camera's small but it hooks up to a VHS machine in the trunk.

The Tulsa Police Department says they are doing research about new technology, but so far the costs involved seem out of reach.

"Ya know there's 500 marked police cars out there so I mean ya know it would take a lot a lot of money to get police cameras in every car," said Tulsa police officer Jason Willingham.