Lawrenceville police use forfeiture funds for needed equipment

The Lawrenceville city council voted Monday to approve use of federal asset forfeiture funds to make several police equipment purchases.

Lawrenceville police will use $62,587 to purchase three license tag readers, hardware and installation for patrol cars and one operation center license and installation for an existing tag reader.

In a separate purchase, police will use $12,075 to purchase three Digital Ally in-car video systems. The DVM-800 cameras integrate with the patrol car’s rear-view mirror and can pre-record up to 30 seconds of footage before an incident recording is triggered.

According to Digital Ally’s website, “Officers who are in the middle of a tense or actively volatile situation may not instantly have time to trigger a recording, and this feature helps ensure that critical details are available for review later on.” In a third purchase, $25,290 will be used to purchase 10 sets of heavy ballistic armor for officers to wear when serving high risk warrants. The current armor is expired and needs replacement.