In the News

A House subcommittee has passed an appropriations bill designating $2.1 million for Wilkes-Barre to improve community policing, U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright announced Tuesday.

The funding would enable the Wilkes-Barre Police Department to improve community policing efforts by purchasing new Tasers and dashboard cameras that are synced with police officers’ body cameras, which would begin recording automatically when the Tasers are drawn from their holsters or the police vehicle sirens are activated.

The funding also would enable the city to purchase the ShotSpotter Respond system, the leading gunshot detection, location and forensic system.

This new technology and equipment would provide police officers and the general public with video accounts of the police encounters and increase transparency and accountability with all interactions, according to a news release from Cartwright’s office.