WETHERSFIELD - The Wethersfield Police Department is dipping into its asset forfeiture account to pay for some in-car video upgrades.

       The Town Council unanimously approved Wethersfield Police Chief James Cetran’s request to allot $51,000 for the replacement of a video recording system that runs in six of the department’s patrol vehicles.

       â€�"The system we have now is based on DVD recording,” Cetran told the Council during a discussion before the vote was taken. â€�"Although they are better than the old cassette tapes, they take up a lot of room.”

       Mostly outside of the vehicles, Cetran said. He estimated that the police department has around 2,400 footage DVDs stacked in the office of Lieutenant Andrew Power. By law, the department is required to keep a given video for 10 years.

       Cetran expects the new equipment, which will be provided by the firm WatchGuard, to not only be less cumbersome, but more efficient.

       â€�"It will automatically update any footage taken to a server,” Cetran said. â€�"It’ll make for a lot clearer pictures and sounds.”

       The system also operates hands-free, Cetran added.

       â€�"As soon as the cruiser pulls out, it uploads,” he said. â€�"The officer doesn’t have to touch anything.”

       The DVD recording system currently being used has been with the department for five to six years, according to Cetran.

       â€�"We pretty much had to replace the whole system,” he said. â€�"The only benefit was that they gave us a trade-in on the cameras.”

       While the department is getting enough equipment to provide video technology for eight of its patrol vehicles, Cetran said.

       â€�"Whenever a car was down, [the officer] would have to take a spare car and the car didn’t have it,” Cetran said. â€�"Every time a car goes out without a camera I get worried.”

       While safety is certainly an issue, the technology provides the department with a level of accountability and protection, Cetran said.

       â€�"It’s extremely beneficial,” he said. â€�"It could save us millions in lawsuits down the road.”

       And it sounds like it already has. Cetran described an incident in which an officer shot an individual. Audio from footage taken indicated that the officer’s â€�"life was in danger,” Cetran said.

       â€�"I can only think of what could have occurred in Ferguson if they had in-car video,” he said.

       That was where Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer a few weeks ago. He was reportedly unarmed. The incident has sparked nationwide outrage and protests in the Missouri town, where St. Louis officers and the National Guard were deployed at separate times in response. The debate has been whether Brown surrendered, tried to flee, or struggled with the officer before he was shot.

       Accounts vary, but Cetran thinks in-car video would have painted a clearer picture. And the technology can be, as Cetran himself said, a double-edged sword. Perhaps nothing would have happened in Ferguson with the added scrutiny of a camera.

       Cetran noted that cameras worn by officers might enhance this further, but said that it’s not a move he is ready to make at this time.

       â€�"The car [cameras] just seem less intrusive to me,” he said.

       For now he’ll focus on those, which he expects to be up and running within the next couple of months.

       The asset forfeiture account--accumulated mostly from drug case seizures--currently has around $1 million, according to Cetran.

       â€�"[The patrol car] is like their office,” Cetran said. â€�"They do everything out of that car, so I’m trying to make it as comfortable as possible and I’ve been doing that with grants and asset forfeiture, and we know the grants are dried up.”