By Wendy Anders

A group of 15 Costa Rican traffic police took matters into their own hands and have outfitted themselves with helmet-mounted videocameras. For most of them, this blew 1/2 their month’s paycheck.

It was worth it though, said officials who spoke with La Nación, Costa Rica’s main Spanish daily paper. The videos of their patrols can help them out of many sticky situations, and also serve as hard evidence in court in the event of any foul play.

Probably no police is more susceptible to being bribed than the infamous “tráficos.” They often patrol alone, and may end up in isolated areas if they have to give chase to a daring driver.

Having a video camera, said Pablo Agüero, diffuses the situation. “As soon as the person I stop sees the camera, the tone of the situation changes, and things calm down, because people think twice when they are being recorded,” he said. People are wary of being caught on tape bribing an officer, which carries steep penalties in Costa Rica.

The success of the cameras has been such, that the Ministry of Transportation and Public Works (MOPT) who oversee the force now have plans to pilot test the cameras with 30 officers, reported La Nación.

The country currently has 762 traffic police, according to the MOPT. The agency estimates it needs to contract 1,165 additional officers to cover the country’s needs. Whoa, that’s a big deficit of officers. No wonder so many people are running red lights and driving without licenses.

Mario Calderón, head of the transit police unit, said over the next four years he hopes to expand the initial pilot program to allow at leat 100 officers to be outfitted with a camera on their patrols, according to the MOPT.