Dear Jason Smith,
Late last year, (2003) I began looking at options for buying a in car video system. Being such a small agency and having a small budget I knew this was going to be difficult. I then decided to try and get assistance with this by writing a state grant for in car video systems; however, due to a large amount of the request from several agencies and limited amount of money, I didn’t get approved.
I decided not to totally give up on getting an in car video system because I believe it would be of such value to have one. So I then began to call around and get prices from several different companies and to look at the different types of systems. I then came upon the information that was sent to me by Martel Electronics about affordable in car video system that could be transferred from one vehicle to another quick and easy at a much lower cost.
After looking at the different options a prices I decided to contact Martel and see about getting a demo unit sent to my agency to try it out. I decided to try the unit known as My Digital Partner with digital effects. Upon reading information it stated that digital recorded at a much higher resolution then that of vhs tapes used by most mounted in car video systems making the records much clearer and more detailed. The systems also had built in audio.
Upon receiving and trying the systems I decided to approach my governing body about purchasing it before the time was up on the demo. I wasn’t sure how this was going to go but to my surprise, the governing body decided to purchaser this unit with everybody voting for it.
Since we have had the digital system it has been of great value. The system records very well and the audio system is very clear. We have used it several times on court cases. I set up a DVD burner on our computer, in which I’m able to record on and this help preventing have a huge pile of VHS tape lying around. It has been of great value!

Brian Walker-Chief

Wathena Police Department