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Published on Thursday, November 25, 2004
in the ABC7 News
FORT MYERS — During this busy travel holiday, FHP troopers in Southwest Florida state troopers have some new equipment that makes it harder for drivers to dispute their actions while driving.
With extra cars on the road this holiday, the highway patrol needs help looking for drunk drivers, aggressive drivers and speeders.
Catching speeders is simple with trooper Jeff Rongish's laser, but now in addition to clocking a driver's speed he can record much more.
"It's getting to be fairly high tech nowadays," Rongish said.
Eighteen new cameras are now in highway patrol cars – a significant jump from the five there used to be in Southwest Florida.
ABC7 got a first look at these cameras. The monitor the trooper sees is located in the front seat, but what actually does the recording is located in the trunk. It looks like a regular VCR locked inside a vault.
"The only time the camera is going to be on is when I hit the lights, the record button or the wireless microphone," Rongish said.
From there, the tape records all it sees and hears.
"The camera is going to aid us in the apprehension of drunk drivers and aggressive drivers. We need those tools to do our job," said Lt. Doug Dodson of the FHP.
"It protects law enforcement and it protects the violator," Rongish said.
The cameras were paid for a with grant money. In addition to the cameras, state funds will pay for faster computer systems, which will be installed in the next few days.
The new systems will reduce the amount of time it takes to file crash and traffic reports.