WATERLOO -- Sheriff's deputies are getting another booster shot of technology while out on patrol.

All cars in the Black Hawk County Sheriff's Department are getting retrofitted with a new digital in-car camera system. It is a large improvement from the tape-based recording system used since the '90s, said Deputy Rich Hoffman. Constantly in use, the age of existing cameras was beginning to show on many of the systems.

"They were just old," Hoffman said. "It was like an old VCR player. It either works or it doesn't work. Some of our systems weren't working."

The new cameras cost the department $110,000, part of which is being paid for by a $25,000 grant from the Black Hawk County Gaming Association.

"It basically saved the county $25,000," he said.

Hoffman said the department has been looking at installing the new system for six to eight months. The new cameras give the deputies the ability to capture traffic stops or other incidents with digital quality video and audio. It also allows them to capture and store more events than an old VHS tape allows.

Hoffman said that will help in the future because officers won't have to worry about having a back-up to bring with them to court during an incident. Another bonus of the all-digital system is that they won't take up as much physical space to store videos. All of it will be on a computer hard-drive, instead of on shelves upon shelves of tapes.

The process of switching to digital cameras takes about an hour and a half, Hoffman said. It took more than two days to convert all the 21 vehicles -- 19 patrol cars and two investigators' cars -- in the sheriff's office fleet over to digital.

Black Hawk County isn't the only department that's made the jump in technology. Cedar Falls, Waterloo and La Porte City police departments don't use VHS anymore. The Hudson Police Department is also looking at converting.

Contact Josh Nelson

at (319) 291-1565 or

josh.nelson@wcfcourier.com.