Money wasted on broken dash cams

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Video from a patrol car dash cam can be the key piece of evidence when an officer is accused of breaking the law.

In Travis County Sheriff's cars, dozens of those cameras do not work and $400,000 of taxpayer money has been wasted.

The county bought the cameras from a company that no longer exists. Now it could cost a lot of money to fix the problem.

"I hate to bring the incident that just happened in Austin where the cameras weren’t working this would cover the officer and cover the person that we are interrogating," said Sheriff Greg Hamilton.

There is no question cameras are a needed tool in law enforcement vehicles.

"We've had calls where deputies were vindicated, we’ve also had calls where the suspect has been vindicated," said Roger Wade, Travis County Sheriff’s Deputy spokesperson.

The Travis County Sheriff's Office ended up with a useless pile of camera systems.

The trouble started in March of 2007, almost immediately after the county purchased the DP2 Integrian systems, they would not work. In July of 2008, the Integrian admitted there was a production flaw and in August they agreed to replace the units. Then in November the new units started failing. Just a few months later the company was sold and in March of 2009, the new company, Digital Safety Technologies, announced they charge $125 an hour for troubleshooting.

The sheriff's office is asking the commissioners court for another 400 thousand dollars to buy and install 65 Panasonic dash camera systems, with a four year warranty.

Commissioners will consider the purchase this Tuesday.

Before they buy they want to be assured all the cameras will be rolling on every stop.

The Commissioners Court is meeting in executive session to decide whether or not to pursue legal action against the company they bought the bunk cameras from.

Our calls to Digital Safety Technologies, were not returned by air time.