The City of South Lyon’s Police Department is upgrading its in-car cameras with software that will essentially allow authorities to “go back in time” and capture video days after an incident has happened.

Police Chief Christopher Sovik came before city council Monday with a request to replace in-car cameras for six of the department’s patrol vehicles. In a memo to City Manager Paul Zelenak, Sovik noted that the current camera manufacturer, L-3 Mobile-Vision, which was recently bought out by another company, has been fairly reliable but is not as user-friendly as another company known as WatchGuard. Sovik also said that the department has had several software issues with the L-3 system related to java script applications. The memo notes that the quote for the cameras from L-3 was more than WatchGuard’s.

Still, he feels the department has been “plagued with the mentality to always go with the lowest bid”. While quotes from other companies came in significantly less than WatchGuard’s, Sovik says with some purchases cheaper is better, but not in this case in which he says the product and customer service is second to none.

Sovik says after requesting information regarding a few different companies, he was sold on WatchGuard because of several features, including the panoramic front-view camera. He says no other manufacturer offered the wide angles to encompass events that may not be seen by cameras from other companies. Another major selling point from the WatchGuard system, according to Sovik, was “after the fact” programming; a patented technology known as Record-After-The-Fact, or RAFT. The programming will allow the department to recapture video from up to 180 hours ago that was automatically recorded.

In his memo, Sovik says included in WatchGuard’s quote is redaction software, allowing certain administrators to redact information from video or audio transmissions, which Sovik expects will assist in what he says are an increasing number of Freedom of Information Act Requests. Sovik also confirmed that the system does not have facial recognition technology.

City Council ultimately voted to approve the purchase of the cameras at a cost of $63,138. (DK)