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Joint resolution approving an emergency appropriation from the State’s Attorney’s Asset Forfeiture Fund for new audio/video recording equipment at the Children’s Advocacy Center.
Staff Summary
· The Lake County Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) investigates allegations of child physical and sexual abuse, and advocates for child victims of such abuse in coordination with local police departments, Illinois Department of Child and Family Services and other state and federal agencies.
· The CAC follows best practices including the recording of all audio/video interviews of children.
· The CAC has four interview rooms at its facility, all outfitted with audio and video recording equipment.
· The recording of child victims’ interviews has several benefits, including: reducing the need for multiple interviews (all multi-disciplinary team members can review the video rather than re-interview the child); capturing all forms of communication (verbal and non-verbal); capturing images of the child at age of disclosure; and refuting or supporting defense claims of “leading questions.”
· It is necessary to replace the existing, antiquated equipment now due to critical system failures and system inefficiencies.
· One interview room is not being utilized because the equipment has failed and interviews can not be recorded and the equipment in the remaining three interview rooms is failing and is not reliable.
· With the current system, recordings have been compromised and are irretrievable.
· A new system will include four Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) each with 500 Gigabytes (GB) of memory, a mouse and a keyboard.
· The State’s Attorney’s Office’s Asset Forfeiture Fund has sufficient funds to pay for the new system, which costs approximately $9,000.
· The purchase of this new equipment was not budgeted in the State’s Attorney’s Asset Forfeiture Fund FY2010 budget, therefore a resolution is requested to approve the purchase.
Body
RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, the State’s At...
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