Nacogdoches Police hope to purchase $400K of video equipment

NACOGDOCHES, TX (KTRE) - The Nacogdoches Police Department is hoping to purchase new video equipment, such as body cameras for each officer and detective, as well as, upgraded camera systems.

The item is set to be discussed during next week’s city council meeting. The department is seeking approval to move forward with the purchase.

“Right now the system that we’ve got, they use channels on the audio, so if you get too many people scene they start kicking each other off. You’ll get the video, but you may not get the audio,” said Nacogdoches Police Chief Jim Sevey.

Sevey explains how the current camera system, used by patrol officers, is failing at a pace no longer acceptable by the standards of current technology.

“In the video quality, the technology we have right now is very much antiquated,” Sevey said. “It is not of the quality that we would like, the clarity is not there. The ability to see things in low light is not there.”

Almost $400,000 will be spent on body cameras and to upgrade the camera systems. Confiscated money collected from drug arrests will be used to make the purchase.

“We’re glad to have any system, but this system, like I said is already outdated,” said Patrol Lieutenant Dan Taravella. “The challenges with this system are the quality of the video. It’s better than the old VHS that we got in 1999, but yet the images are not that great. Sometimes you can’t see license plates on a video up close, sometimes, you can’t see detail like you would want to and that we hope to with this system.”

Sevey said they were hoping to make the switch in the upgrades and body cameras about three to four years ago with the current vendor, but nothing formulated in their technology advancements. As a result the department found a new state vendor to purchase the video equipment.

The Nacogdoches City Council will consider the purchase of the video equipment during their next meeting held on Tuesday.

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