Town OKs deal for county to handle evidence for discovery

Town Board members have approved a deal for Ulster County to handle processing discovery materials used by defense attorneys.

The contract for $7,827 was approved during a meeting earlier this month and pays the local share of a state Division of Criminal Justice Services grant for computer systems needed to transfer documents, video and audio recordings.

Under state law, police agencies have 15 days to turn over 21 categories of material to defense lawyers.

“It’s a daily thing,” town Police Chief Kyle Berardi said. “I have a part-time clerk that comes in and does it five days a week.”

In a telephone interview Tuesday, Berardi said material requested includes arrest reports, phone calls, radio transmissions, body and dash camera video, and information from outside agencies. He noted that requests involving only the town police are streamlined compared to arrests involving multiple agencies.

“As soon as you involve a large-scale incident … it does take up time and it is a financial burden,” he said.

“We still maintain our own radio and phone call logs,” Berardi said. “We still maintain our own server for dash cams and body cams. (Ulster County is) more of the conduit … between us and the defense so that the District Attorney’s office gathers it all together and keeps it as one incident for the defense to view.”

Berardi said the agreement does not cover the cost of personnel needed to transfer material to the county database.

“The grant only covers new computer and (putting information on) DVDs if we’re burning them,” he said.

The agreement will help sort between information from daily patrols of three shifts per day, with the department using 13 vehicles that have both dash and body cameras.

“We still have to store the data whether it’s going to be discoverable or not,” Berardi said.

“It helps offset some of our equipment costs,” he said. “Obviously database for storage of video and audio is large. You need a lot of room for it.”