Cars, Mobile Substation Ticketed for Police

The Police Department is poised to receive a mobile substation, five in-vehicle video cameras and 13 new squad cars.

The substation, a converted recreational vehicle equipped with law enforcement equipment, will serve as an operations base for field personnel targeting areas not near police headquarters. Furnishings include a desk, telephones, computers, a kitchenette, restrooms and a small holding cell.

Officials propose that it be used for community policing, disaster responses, SWAT operations, major crime scenes, sobriety checkpoints, prostitution stings, gang and drug sweeps, police recruitment drives, the DARE antidrug campaign and bike-safety programs.

The special video cameras would be mounted in five patrol cars to record evidence that should help with the prosecution of criminal offenders, said Tony Petros, chairman of the city’s Local Law Enforcement Block Grant Ad Hoc Committee. The committee made recommendations to the council on how to spend the federally allocated funds that are covering much of the cost.

“It provides for undisputed documentation of the arrest,” Petros said. “What it also does is keep the officer on his best behavior. The overwhelming information that we got, including discussions with other police officers, is that they welcome it.”

The cost of the mobile station and about five in-vehicle cameras will total $108,323. Of that, $97,491 is coming from a federal law enforcement grant and $10,832 is in matching funds from the city. The equipment should be delivered by the end of the year.

The municipal-equipment budget will relinquish $282,489 for the new patrol cars. The city is buying the sedans from a Ford dealer in Pasadena, the lowest bidder.

The City Council approved the expenditures Monday evening.