CLEARFIELD – Thanks to generous donations from the community, the Lawrence Township Police Department has been able to take advantage of the latest technology in fighting crime.
During Tuesday’s supervisors meeting, Police Chief Doug Clark announced that the department has recently acquired two body cameras.
He said he believes they are the first ones to use such equipment in the area and that the closest department to Lawrence to have them is in the Centre County area.
“They are fabulous,” Clark said, adding that the picture quality is exceptional.
The body cams join the dashboard cams in place in some of the patrol cars used by the department, also purchased thanks to the generous donations of businesses and individuals.
Clark said the camera footage from both types of cameras will be especially useful in court. The body cameras, for example, give viewers the perspective of the officer wearing the device, seeing what they see.
“We are all very excited,” he added, and said that he hopes with further donations to eventually have more cameras for the cars and for officers, and to have systems in place where the body and car cameras will sync with each other.
The first such system like that will be available when the new cruiser is delivered in May or June.
Another generous donation from resident Don Shaw will allow the department to purchase new Glock handguns for each officer.
Clark also informed the supervisors and public that the department received a report of a scam letter sent to a resident.
It follows the formula of a person in a foreign country trying to contact people to “inherit” money from a deceased individual, in this case Manuel Noriega, the deceased former leader of Panama.
Clark said these letters, and similar phone calls, ask for personal information from the targets and he reminds residents to never give anyone your banking information, social security number, etc.
He added that callers posing as representatives of the IRS have been active and that the IRS does not call people.
If you receive such a letter or phone call, Clark encourages you to contact his department and talk with him.