Exactly what happened during a bizarre traffic stop just outside of Detroit last year might have been easily determined if Hazel Park police had video footage of the incident.

But the department hasn't had dashcam systems in any of its patrol vehicles in nearly a decade.

And there are no current plans to install them, although the department is looking at a possible body-cam program, Hazel Park Police Chief Martin Barner said.

Without any video footage, a he-said-she-said battle is playing out in a federal lawsuit over allegations that police forced two women to expose their bodies along I-75.

Jan L. Crawford, 47, of Berkeley, and Michelle Jaeger, 44, of Shelby Township, are suing four Hazel Park police officers, claiming they were subjected to improper searches.

Crawford and Jaeger claim Hazel Park Police Officer Ryan McCabe ordered them to expose and shake their bodies while another officer recorded with a cell phone, during a traffic stop and search along the highway about 2 a.m. June 5, 2016.

McCabe, an officer since 2014 and an honorably discharged U.S. Army sergeant, denied asking the women to expose their chests, or that another officer recorded them, while giving a deposition for the lawsuit on April 28.

He said he pulled over Jaeger's Chevrolet Tahoe for illegally crossing a solid white lane divider while merging onto a highway, after following the vehicle for about 2 miles.

"It's what I do," McCabe said in his deposition, responding to a question about why he initially began tailing the SUV. "I drive up and down Eight Mile and I run license plates, looking for stolen cars, suspends, things of that nature."

Jaeger, the driver, said in a March 29 deposition that she was on the entrance ramp to the highway and didn't have an opportunity to change lanes by the time the police lights came on and she pulled over.

"We'll get to that later," she said was the response when she first asked why they were stopped.

Crawford, in the backseat; her then-boyfriend Chris Mattice, in the front-passenger seat; and Jaeger, the driver, were returning home from a barbecue in Detroit.

Crawford said McCabe and another officer who arrived shortly after the stop, identified as Officer Jacob Morris in court records, asked for the IDs of all passengers.

One officer returned to his police car to run them. Meanwhile, McCabe and Crawford had a "lengthy conversation" about her daughter, who was preparing to have a brain tumor removed.

McCabe had a family member who underwent a similar ordeal, according to Crawford.

"It seemed like he was hitting on her and just trying to engage her in conversation, which is odd and out of place," Jaeger said.

Something sparked the officers' interest in Mattice. They removed him from the car and began searching him. They found a small baggie of cocaine hidden in his sock, McCabe said at his deposition.

Asked if he would consider it a strip search if the subjects of a stop exposed their breasts during an officer's search effort, McCabe responded "Not necessarily, no"

"If I had directed that to occur, then yes," he said.

"... A strip search would be, in my opinion, me intending to expose certain items, certain portions of a person's body in order to search that area. If I deal with somebody that's highly intoxicated, hypothetically, and they expose something on their own -- which they were not instructed to do -- I would not consider that a strip search on my part."

Ryan McCabe deposition:

Ryan McCabe Deposition Hazel Park Strip Search Lawsuit by Fergus Burns on Scribd

Crawford, however, claims the officer specifically ordered her to expose her breasts.

He asked her to exit the vehicle and told her Mattice was found in possession of "crack cocaine," according to Crawford. McCabe called it "powder cocaine," during his own deposition.

"I was in shock," Crawford said.

The officer took her to the hood of the police vehicle.

"He goes, now spread your legs, so I did," Crawford said under oath. "He said spread them further, and I did. And then he said, now I need you to lean forward, he goes, now stick out your ass, and I did."

Crawford said McCabe then asked her to lift her shirt up with her right hand. She did, "a little bit."

"And he said, no, all the way up," Crawford said. " ... So I pulled my shirt up and then he said, I need you to ... pull your bra up with it too.

"I was leaning trying to do it all at the same time and I was nervous, so felt shaken," Crawford said. "I was like, OK, is that enough? He goes, no, I need you to shake your breasts in case there's anything in there, so I did.

"And he said, not side to side, up and down, so I shook them up and down."

At one point, she said, he asked her to "shake them harder."

Jan Crawford deposition:

Jan Crawford Hazel PArk Lawsuit Strip Search Lawsuit by Fergus Burns on Scribd

Crawford said an officer to her right had his cell phone camera pointed at her during the ordeal. Jaeger also said at her deposition there was an officer holding up a cell phone and appearing to take photos or video.

Jaeger said that from the driver's seat, she looked back while the search of Crawford was occurring. She saw her friend bent over the hood of the police car.

"Her shirt was up and her butt was out," Jaeger said. " ... I could see she had her shirt up and was exposed."

After the officer told Crawford she could put her shirt back down, she said he asked: "Do we need to strip search you?"

"At this point, I had started to cry, and was like, 'no,'" Crawford said.

McCabe's recounting of the events is slightly different. He said Crawford appeared "under the influence" and was "slurring" during the interaction.

She claims to have had about three beers earlier that day and that she wasn't drunk. Police did find an open beer in the backseat Crawford claims she wasn't aware it was there.

McCabe said the traffic stop became a narcotics investigation after they found cocaine on Mattice, and his suspicion that there might be more drugs was heightened by vague answers he said Crawford and Jaeger gave about where they had been earlier in the night.

The location of the barbecue they claimed to be at -- although they couldn't provide an exact address -- was a "known narcotics area," McCabe said.

Before conducting his search, McCabe said he told Crawford specifically: "I don't want any skin shown. I don't want to see anything."

"All I would have requested her to do is to grab the underwire of her bra -- through her shirt, with her shirt still on, down, nothing exposed -- pull it away from her body one or two inches and shake out the underwire."

After performing a similar check on Jaeger, who he believed was sober, McCabe said he searched the SUV, found the open can of beer, but no drugs, and allowed the two women to leave.

Jaeger claimed in her deposition that she was also asked to lift her shirt, expose her bra and shake her body.

Morris and a third officer, Scott Silver, provided depositions supporting McCabe's statements.

Chief Barner said all of the involved officers remain on active duty and an internal investigation into the claims is ongoing.

"I have no proof that this occurred," Barner told MLive. "I have officer statements that, personally, I tend to put a little more credibility into than the statements of the plaintiffs at this time."

While dashcam footage of the stop might have answered the question as to which side is telling the truth, Barner says his department, which includes about 32 officers, 12 patrol vehicles and 2.2 miles of jurisdiction, has no plans to install them.

It's not clear how much money or labor hours have been spent by Hazel Park in the defense of the lawsuit, but defense attoreny James Acho said, "so far, there has been no cost to the city." He called the lawsuit "baseless."

Barner did say the city is considering a body camera program, although there are no imminent plans for those either.

"I would assume a body camera would capture more than a dashcam," Barner said when asked why the department wasn't pursuing a dashcam systems.

The company that installed dashcams in the fleet cars about a decade ago went out of business a short time later and the department's $180,000-plus investment became virtually useless, the chief said.

That experience "left a sour taste in everybody's mouth," he said.

Hazel Park Mayor Pro Tem Michael Webb said that while dashcam systems have been discussed, there's a long list of department needs, and they are not a top priority.

"It's on the list," he said. "We're not against it."

The city is currently looking to spend nearly $25,000 purchasing bullet resistant vests for the department.

"We have so many things on the table for discussion at this time," Webb said.