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Canfield PD switches out two cruisers, to wait a year on body cams
By ROBERT CONNELLY
CANFIELD
The city’s police department is adding two new cruisers.
Canfield City Council approved the purchase of two 2015 Dodge Chargers not to exceed $25,500 each as well as decals and other accessories for each vehicle not to exceed $19,000 for both cars.
“Over the last several years, we have done everything possible to save and conserve money. We have applied for several vehicle grants and have been fortunate enough to have had vehicles donated to the police department,” said Police Chief Chuck Colucci. “We have fallen behind in our vehicle rotation, and older vehicles have become quite expensive to maintain.”
Last year, the police had only one of its cruisers switched out in a budgetary decision.
“The two new cruisers will be welcomed by the police department and ultimately will assist in providing our community with effective and efficient service,” Colucci said.
The two cruisers being switched out were declared surplus by city council, two 2010 Dodge Chargers, and will be sold or traded in. Both had more than 100,000 miles on them.
“We get as much miles out of them as we can,” said Mayor Bernie Kosar Sr.
Another budgetary move by the police department is to hold off on pursuing body cameras for another year. That decision was made during budget talks after concerns were raised about the cameras. Councilman Chuck Tieche and Colucci discussed the matter at one of the city’s budget hearings.
Colucci said he wanted to wait for two reasons — the possibility of more grant options and for more policy guidelines to be set.
One of the concerns for Tieche was whether an officer wears a camera into a home.
“There’s a lot of discussion that needs to be had,” Tieche said.
Colucci said that dash cameras, currently on nine of the department’s cruisers, and the microphones on police were able to pick up audio from a residence during a domestic-violence case last year. He further said that audio is part of evidence in that case.
Colucci said waiting a year will “allow some momentum to be built in the direction of privacy issues, policy issues, and case law issues.”
In January, Colucci first mentioned that the police department would ask for funding for body cameras to add more accountability to his department. It would have cost $13,500 for nine cameras, including service contracts and yearly fees. City officials were concerned about storing all of the video and audio records, which the city keeps for two years unless those records are part of a case or litigation.
The village of Lowelleville has four body cameras, and the Mahoning County commissioners approved the purchase of 18 body cameras for the county sheriff’s office earlier this year.