Decatur Signs With Ocular To Distribute DAX™ - The First Camera To Combat Drug and Alcohol-Impaired Driving
Pasadena, CA – August 15, 2017 –Ocular Data Systems, Inc. has inked a deal with Decatur Electronics of Phoenix, Arizona (a Soncell North America Company), a leader in traffic control solutions and a 60-year pioneer in Law Enforcement Speed Measurement, to distribute its groundbreaking DAX™ Evidence Recorder. DAX™ is a handheld camera that specially aids law enforcement in manually testing and recording eye movements and responses. These critical signs of drug and alcohol impairment, or medical conditions, not typically picked up by dash or body cameras, can be used by prosecutors as court admissible audio-video evidence of impaired driving to help settle cases before they go to court and ultimately keep officers in the field.
“There is no question that marijuana and other lethal drugs like heroin and opioids are presenting a major challenge for law enforcement during routine traffic stops,” said Melvin Sheldon, Soncell North America and Decatur Electronics, Inc. Chairman. “This is why we could not be more pleased to be partnering with Ocular to bring DAX™ to the market. DAX™ is a proven technology, that when added to an officer’s field sobriety test or individual’s drug test, can be the key piece of video evidence that helps prosecutor defend a drug-impairment case. One day, we hope every traffic safety officer has DAX™ on his or her person. It’s truly that important in the fight against drug-impaired driving.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Decatur will distribute DAX™ throughout the Western, Mid-Atlantic, and South Central United States with an option to eventually expand distribution worldwide. To date, 30 police agencies in 20 states and in Canada have deployed DAX™ to increase the prosecution and conviction rates for alcohol and drug impaired driving. This includes Denver PD, Los Angeles PD, the Colorado State Patrol, and the Tennessee Highway Patrol, NYPD, in addition to the Houston PD DWI Task Force, one of the company’s biggest customers.
“Drug-impaired driving isn’t detectable with a simple roadside breath tester or even with laboratory blood tests. DAX™ Evidence Recorder provides a tremendous opportunity to document what the arresting officer saw and support the testimony of Drug Recognition Experts in court,” said Marcus O. Filipovich, Chief Executive Officer, Ocular Data Systems, Inc. “This is why we could not be more pleased to align ourselves with Decatur, one of the pioneers in traffic safety products, to continue to expand the availability of DAX™ throughout the country, keep impaired drivers off the road and ultimately save lives.”
Ocular’s co-founder Dick Studdard, retired Sgt. LAPD is credited as being the founder of the Drug Recognition Program (DRE) back in the early 1970s. The visionary program brought together law enforcement with doctors and researchers from around the country to develop the DRE protocol for teaching officers how to recognize the signs of drug use, in addition to alcohol.
“Juries increasingly expect to see video in court rooms, and though here to stay, dash and body cameras just don’t capture the subtleties of the human eye that DAX™ can. The DAX™ will record a nystagmus, one’s pupil size, and one’s reaction to light for both court and training purposes. In addition, it will record eyelid fluttering, nuances around blood shot eyes, even track marks and body tremors, so that rather than just describing what they saw during a traffic stop, an officer can now show it. This both strengthens the prosecution’s case and backs up an officers’ testimony, so we keep cases out of court, and we officers in the field,” added Studdard.
DAX™ is available now through Decatur and Ocular representatives and will be on display at the Ocular booth at the upcoming IACP/DRE Conference, August 12-15, 2017, in National Harbor, Maryland.
For more information or to schedule a meeting at the IACP/DRE Conference, visit www.decaturelectronics.com and www.oculardatasystems.com.
About Ocular
With over 5 million traffic crashes annually, costing Americans over $37 billion each year, Ocular Data Systems, Inc. of Pasadena, CA created DAX™ evidence recorder to address the epidemic of drug and alcohol impaired driving crashes and fatalities. DAX, a groundbreaking, handheld, infra-red, high-def digital video camera is sold to police agencies and allows DRE, ARIDE and SFST-trained law enforcement officers to test and record the eye movements and responses that are critical signs of impairment. DAX also provides prosecutors with court-admissible audio-video evidence to help settle drug and alcohol impaired driving cases before they go to court, to keep officers in the field and roads safer. For more information, visit www.oculardatasystems.com.
