Bean-counting local officials who balked at a two-year-old state law requiring new police cars to be equipped with dashboard video systems have sealed their financial victory. On Wednesday, the New Jersey Council on Local Mandates affirmed its earlier ruling that the law violates the state constitution, since the state provided towns with insufficient funds to pay for the systems.

We hope Deptford Township Mayor Paul Medany and other challengers of the law are not partying too hard. Winning a dollars-and-cents argument doesn't mean that the result benefits the police, the citizens they encounter or, ultimately, local taxpayers.

Sure, this is a win for the "state mandate, state pay" concept, justifiably installed in the 1990s when the Legislature was going hog-wild with mandates resulting in higher local property taxes.

However, the video evidence provided by these cameras has become essential, particularly when police are accused of using excessive force. The mandate is now toast, but the Legislature and Gov. Chris Christie need to find a way to get more officers and more cars equipped with these recording devices.

We're not disputing the mandate council's finding that the camera law's $25 surcharge on driving-while-intoxicated convictions doesn't cover the cost of putting cameras into replacement patrol cars or, alternatively, supplying officers with body-worn cameras. Deptford Township submitted calculations showing the surcharge would pay for as little as 6 percent of a camera's cost.

Maybe that's the real problem. Online, drivers can purchase dashcams for their personal vehicles for as little as $24.99. That one might not be of sufficient quality to submit court-case video, but the first page of a "Google Shopping" result returned 10 models selling for less than $100, and nine others whose highest price is $359.99.

If police departments are shelling out $2,000, $3,000 or more for these systems, blame the blunted-competition pricing and overly restrictive bid requirements that give law enforcement little choice among patrol vehicles -- and, probably, their accessories. Broadening specifications might go a long way toward making video systems affordable.

The cameras, where police already have them, will keep on exonerating cops facing bogus brutality charges. No one ever views towns' high legal fees and huge wrongful-death case settlements as "unfunded mandates." And, yes, the cameras can also point out those cases where officers did behave irresponsibly and should be disciplined.

Sponsored by Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D-Gloucester) -- who faced his own motor vehicle charges that were invalidated by video evidence -- the camera mandate set a rational schedule that permitted towns to incorporate the devices over several years as they replaced aging vehicles in their fleets. As the new state budget year approaches, this should remain a priority, even if the state has to buy the cameras itself and give them to the towns.

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