Barrington to buy new recording equipment for police

The Barrington Polce Department will receive an upgrade to its interview rooms, including new HD cameras and new recording software.

Barrington trustees unanimously approved the purchase at Monday night’s village board meeting.

Police Chief David Dorn said the new equipment, which will cost just over $8,000, significantly improves the department’s ability to review recorded interviews both for ongoing criminal investigations and for use as evidence in court.

“Logging is critical,” Dorn said. “We can provide when the interview was done and this is when we burned it off so the chain of events is transparent for the court.”

Dorn said the current system uses a closed circuit camera to record interviews, which officers would have to burn to a DVD before it could be viewed, a lengthy process that often requires officers to review hours of footage to find the relevant section. The new system will record straight onto a digital video recorder.

Dorn said the reason for upgrading the system now is because recent state laws will require police to record interviews for more types of criminal charges.

The upgrade will also add a third interview room to the station.

Dorn said he hopes to have the new system installed as quickly as possible.