The 14-minute videotape of the Deptford Township police officers' Feb. 2, 2006, encounter with a Philadelphia motorist was captured by video cameras mounted on the dashboards of two township police cars.
And it is the centerpiece of a police-brutality trial expected to begin this week before a jury in state Superior Court in Gloucester County.
Dashboard cameras in police cars, which supporters say guard against police abuse and baseless claims against officers, are proliferating in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and across the nation. Still, experts say it's rare for one of the cameras to capture police misconduct.
Only about one in five of the nation's police cruisers have dashboard cameras, according to Mike Fergus, who studies patrol car cameras for the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
In 2004, when the association surveyed police departments, New Jersey and Pennsylvania state police, along with many other state police agencies, had begun installing cameras in patrol vehicles, Fergus said.
City and municipal departments, however, have lagged in installing the cameras, which cost $4,500 to $6,500 each.
That's rapidly changing, Fergus said, opening the world of police officers to the eyes of the world.
"Videotape, assuming it's authentic, is the most powerful evidence you can have," said Harold J. Ruvoldt, a former North Jersey prosecutor who sometimes defends police officers in his private practice.
Pennsylvania State Police installed cameras in all patrol cars two years ago. New Jersey State Police equipped all patrol vehicles with cameras in 2000 to settle a U.S. Justice Department probe of alleged racial profiling.
Many local police departments, including Deptford Township, also have embraced cameras.
