By Brian Maas | Rocky Mountain News | Aug. 22, 2008

The Denver Police Department will rely in part on live high-tech video feeds to try to isolate and arrest potentially violent protesters at next week's Democratic National Convention.

Denver received a $50 million federal grant for DNC security, but officials have been extremely secretive about how that money has been spent.

However, a CBS4 investigation has learned where some of the money has gone and how police plan to maintain peace at numerous protests and demonstrations that begin this weekend and continue through next week.

Many officers will be armed with new cell phone video cameras capable of transmitting video live back to Denver police headquarters at 1331 Cherokee St., several sources said. There, authorities will sift through the pictures and help identify individuals who should be pursued for unlawful activities.

Additionally, police contacts said the department has installed numerous fixed cameras around downtown Denver that will transmit live pictures to police coordinators, who will be able to watch what's happening in "real time," identify potential instigators and problem spots then relay that information to field officers who can quell problems or make arrests.

Much of that visual information will be ingested and viewed at multiple new "war rooms" at police headquarters. Numerous police sources said the department has purchased upwards of a dozen flat-screen television monitors that have been installed in conference rooms that have been configured as war rooms for the DNC.

The department also spent about $1 million of the federal money on a new mobile command post. The RV-like vehicle is said to contain high-tech communications equipment that hasn't always worked properly. As late as this week, technicians were still working on the vehicle's internal electronics trying to work out bugs, according to sources. Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman said Thursday that the technical issues had been sorted out and the mobile command post would be up and running for the DNC.

The department has borrowed two all-terrain vehicles from the Los Angeles Police Department, according to internal police sources. They say the ATVs are equipped with sophisticated technology capable of translating police orders in English into many other languages then broadcasting the warnings to protesters.

While Chief Gerry Whitman was not asked specifically about what CBS4 had learned, he said Thursday, "I'm confident we have everything in place to keep the event secure."