JAMIE C. RUFF, Associated Press
COLLINSVILLE, Va. -- For Deputy T.J. Slaughter, the camera mounted at the top of the windshield in his cruiser is a comfort.
It is a comfort to be able to tape record the conduct of prisoners in the back seat, tape traffic stops and even record audiotape of conversations held in a residence by using a remote speaker.
With any question about an officer’s conduct or that of a defendant, “All they have to do is pop out the tape and watch it,” Slaughter said.
Supporters note cameras mounted in patrol cars serve just that purpose, taking testimony beyond the officer’s word against someone else’s and letting a judge or supervisor see just what happened and what was said.
Last week, Henry County Sheriff H.F. Cassell and U.S. Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., R-5th, announced that the sheriff’s department had received a $100,000 federal grant to purchase cameras for patrol cars. The department already has, or has money to install, cameras in 13 vehicles.
The grant money will allow the installation of another 25 cameras, letting the department come in just short of its goal of installing the cameras in 40 vehicles. The department hopes to raise enough for two more cameras, Capt. K.G. Nester said.
Goode said he spent just more than a year securing money for the cameras for various departments in his district, first for the cities of Charlottesville, Danville and Martinsville, and recently for his district’s sheriff’s departments. The 5th District includes Fluvanna, Nelson, Bedford and Brunswick counties, among others. Next, Goode said, he will secure funds to provide cameras for the town police departments.
The grants have ranged in size from $25,000 to $100,000 depending on the locality’s population, Goode said. In Southside, the effort became a priority when Pittsylvania County Deputy Frankie Betterton was gunned down during a traffic stop.
“That was a key factor,” Goode said.
On May 17, 2002, Roy Douglas Inge Jr. shot Betterton, 43, once in the head with a .380-caliber gun as he was about to be served with a warrant for trespassing at a veterinary clinic operated by Betterton’s wife. A Pittsylvania jury convicted Inge of capital murder in early February and recommended Inge be sentenced to death.
But Inge’s defense attorneys, backed by the testimony of a clinical psychologist, argued that he suffers from adult schizophrenia and is delusional. In late April, Pittsylvania Circuit Judge William Alexander sentenced Inge to life in prison.
At the announcement about the grant, Cassell said the Henry County department did not consider the cameras a priority until Betterton was killed.
“That showed me the importance of these cameras,” he said.
The cameras, which can be turned on manually or set to come on when the blue lights are activated, can zoom in or take a panoramic shot. The cameras record everything onto a normal videocassette recorder tape locked in “the vault” located in the trunk, Slaughter said.
“Unless someone has a crowbar and a lot of time, he’s not going to get to it,” the officer said.
Maj. Gary Goodson of the Pittsylvania sheriff’s office said department leaders had thought about putting cameras in the vehicles, “but it never would have been a reality” without Betterton’s slaying. The night after her husband’s slaying, Betterton’s wife contacted the sheriff about raising funds for the patrol car cameras.
The Pittsylvania County supervisors funded the $182,200 to purchase 50 cameras for patrol and civil process cars, including two back-up units, but were repaid through donations. The cameras had been installed in the vehicles by early January. The work would have been done earlier, but the department had to re-bid the project.
The community quickly bought into the effort. While local businesses also made donations, “predominantly it was just individual support,” Goodson said. “I would say it was by nickel and dime.”
Goode secured grant money to help Pittsylvania put computers in their deputies’ cars, a cause he hopes to take up soon for other localities, including Henry. Meanwhile, in Henry County, sheriff’s department officials are gushing about the prospect of having cameras in their cars.
“This is big, big time,” Nester said at the announcement. “It may not be to the media, but it is to us. ... It progressed our agency.”
But the effort also highlights one difficulty, Nester noted. Rural departments might not have the budget of their more populous counterparts, but their residents expect the same level of professionalism.
“People expect us to have what the Henrico County police department has,” he said. “All of us need the same equipment. There is no less need for it.”
Henry County’s wish list includes computers for patrol cars, allowing for quicker license and registration checks and communication with other officers without having to go through a dispatcher, and an updated radio system, Nester noted.
But money is always an issue. Cassell noted that the grant comes at a good time, because the region has seen an exodus of textile jobs, with the loss blamed on foreign competition, resulting in reduced revenue for local governments.
“The county can’t afford to give more than it has with the job losses,” Cassell said.
Goode said Henry’s financial situation was not unusual, noting, “Many jurisdictions could not put the money up themselves.”