POLICE in Darlington will be the first to pilot a scheme aimed at reducing repair costs for Panda cars.
Durham Constabulary is fitting ten divisional beat cars with "black box" recorders.
The equipment will collate information about the vehicle's speed, direction of travel and skidding in the moments before impact.
The scheme is aimed at reducing accidents costs, but police chiefs also hope they might provide evidence to refute unfounded allegations made against officers.
The boxes will be fitted to cars in Darlington during the next two months.
If the experiment is successful the force hopes to put them in a further 150 cars.
The devices, which cost between £300 and £400, cannot be tampered with or switched off.
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