Correction: This story incorrectly reporter that two Cleveland police officers have been publicly identified as the focus of a brutality complaint. Police officials have yet to release the names of the officers under investigation. The officers named in this story, Donald Kopchak and Raul Atanacio, chased a minivan that, according to a police report, was driven by the man who filed the brutality complaint.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland is the only big-city police department in Ohio without dashboard cameras in its cruisers. The absence explains the lack of video evidence in the New Year's Day high-speed chase 'that resulted in a claim of police brutality.

The only video that exists was shot with a thermal-imaging camera from a police helicopter that hovered above the arrest scene.

Safety Director Martin Flask, Councilman Zack Reed, police union President Steve Loomis and David Malik, a civil-rights attorney for the man who made the brutality claim, say everyone would be better served had there been video of the incident from start to finish.

Reed this week renewed his decade-long call for the city to equip police cars with cameras.

"It's important to have cameras in cars for both the safety of the police officers and citizens," Reed said. "It works both ways."

Flask said the city plans to begin a pilot program for dashboard cameras as soon as it receives federal clearance and officers can be trained.

The Jan. 1 incident began with two patrol officers who said they were nearly struck by a van driven by Edward Henderson, 38, on Superior Avenue near East 123rd Street. Patrolmen Donald Kopchak and Raul Atanacio, who were ticketing another vehicle, jumped into their car and chased the van, which eventually entered the East Shoreway in the wrong direction before crashing near East 38th Street and South Marginal Road.

Henderson has said he was beaten by police officers, breaking his nose and other facial bones. Henderson, who has been indicted on six counts of felonious assault on a police officer, has said he did not run or resist at the time of his arrest.

Flask said an internal investigation into Henderson's allegations should be finished in early March. He agreed video recordings of the entire incident would have helped "fill in some gaps."

Cleveland earmarked $150,000 from a 2008 federal grant to put cameras in cars. Fifteen have been installed in cars used for traffic enforcement and downtown patrols, but they cannot be used until the city receives clearance from the Federal Communications Commission.

The cameras will automatically download videos to a computer server at the Cleveland Police Safety Center.

Cameras will be placed in other patrol cars when money becomes available, Flask said. The city has budgeted $100,000 this year to purchase more.

Loomis, president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, said most police departments have had dash cameras for years.

Cincinnati has taken the technology one step further and has begun outfitting officers with miniature cameras that clip onto their ears.

Video from dash cameras would have been important evidence in the New Year's Day incident, Loomis said.

"Good or bad for us, it would have shown what happened," Loomis said. Dash cameras protect everyone, police and public alike, Loomis said.

Officers are far less likely to act unprofessionally if they know their actions are being recorded, Loomis said. And cameras have repeatedly protected officers and cities from frivolous lawsuits. He said that has happened in Cleveland because of officers who have installed cameras on their own.

Malik, the attorney hired by Edwards, agreed with Loomis. He said it's puzzling why Cleveland is not using cameras.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: mgillispie@plaind.com, 216-999-4738