Kokomo — Anyone who has ever watched “COPS” or saw last week’s incredible video of the Ohio teen launching his Camaro into a concrete bridge column understands the power of police video technology.

For the men and women in uniform, in-car cameras have become a part of the job. The camera eye has become the producer of prima facie evidence sought by defense attorneys and prosecutors alike.

The cameras are also very expensive, and outfitting a fleet of vehicles with the latest technology has become a constant struggle for the Kokomo Police Department and the Howard County Sheriff Department.

KPD Maj. Jim Calabro estimates upwards of 80 percent of the department’s marked cars have video technology installed.

Use of cameras is mandatory, per KPD policy, but that’s only if the officer has a working system installed, Calabro explained.

Some of the KPD’s cars have fairly modern systems that transfer video onto 4-gigabyte digital cards, similar to those used in digital cameras. Officers download the data on the cards into a central databank after their shifts.

Other officers are stuck using the previous system, which records via a VCR in the trunk of the squad car. The videotapes are logged into evidence after each shift.

Then there are the department’s new Dodge Charger squad cars, some of which have been operating without any system for more than a year.

This week, however, KPD is set to move to its next system, which city officials hope will improve the quality of the video and make it easier for officers to transfer the data.

One of the major complaint about in-car cameras, Calabro said, has been that the cameras’ forward view is only 70 degrees wide. That’s just enough to capture what’s directly in front of the squad car.

The new system, which is expected to be delivered this week, has twice the viewing angle, and requires no data cards, Calabro said.

The KPD will purchase 20 of the new systems using about $200,000 in federal grant money. Installation will begin this week, he added.

Instead of saving video on data cards, the new system includes wireless downloading, so that the saved video begins streaming from the car to the city’s servers as the officer pulls the car into the City Hall garage.

Calabro said the system, sold through InTech Video, Elm Grove, Wis., is “a state-of-the-art system no one else has.”

KPD actually received the grant last year, but none of the proposals submitted met the KPD’s criteria for performance and price, until InTech came along, Calabro said.

The sheriff department has four of its 24 squad cars equipped with in-car cameras and also are hoping to upgrade, Howard County Sheriff Marty Talbert said.

Talbert said he has two assigned to K-9 drug units and two on regular squad car units.

“We have one old analog system and three newer ones, which record to DVD,” he said. “We’d certainly like to get more.”

While the in-car cameras are useful, Talbert said, he’s not sure if it’s the best avenue. The county received about $58,000 from the same grant the city received, but didn’t use any of the money for in-car cameras.

The sheriff pointed to cameras worn on deputies’ uniforms as a possible next step in keeping up with the technology.

“With video mics and video on the deputies’ lapels, they can go inside a house or a jail cell,” he said. “The in-car cameras are limited to the cars and when the camera is down, you have to take the car out of service for repairs. The video mics have great potential and seem to have more versatility.”

As for prosecuting cases, Howard County Deputy Prosecutor Mark Hurt says while the new technology can be helpful in some court cases, it also will be more costly and require additional manpower.

“Jurors seem to want that,” he said of video evidence. “But the technological advances have created more time and more expenses.”

Hurt explained that defense attorneys are now wanting the video as part of their discovery, and video from the jail as part of their defense.

The lack of in-car camera evidence was brought to the fore recently during the trial of Michael Yates, who was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the Abby Rethlake case.

Defense attorney Rodney Shrock questioned KPD officers who worked the evening of the April 2008 murder, establishing that no in-car police video established Yates’ whereabouts that evening.

At one point, Officer Beth Gunlite acknowledged she didn’t recall whether the car she was in had a camera, or if the camera was operational.

“Not only do defense attorneys want the video to show the [traffic] stop and the performance of the field sobriety test, they want a copy of the video at the jail showing how they act in jail. The videos have to burned onto a DVD and supplied to the defense attorney, which increases the cost and time,” Hurt said.

Hurt added that most of his cases involving drunken drivers rarely go to trial.

“[Video] actually only helps on a few cases,” he said. “In most cases, the defendant pleads guilty and doesn’t go to trial.”