On the heels of the county board discussing utilizing flock cameras, the Carmi City Council took up the matter and the topic dominated discussion Tuesday evening accounting for more than 36 minutes of the 52 minute session. The common theme between the county and city meetings was a concerned citizen, Richard Cook, Jr., who warned of potential bad actors and safety/security issues surrounding the technology. Police Chief Jason Carter says back in January and February, he and some of his officers sat down to start looking at LPR (License Plate Reader) camera options including four different companies. After going through demonstrations and hearing pitches from three of those four companies, he determined Flock to be the best option to go with. The cameras are placed in strategic locations and while they’re not designed to catch you speeding or any minor infraction, Carter says there are at least 6 scenarios this year alone where the cameras would’ve made a difference in solving a crime or solving it much faster.
We had a First Bank forgery, $6,000 one lady walked into the First Bank branch. We had a very good description based on camera footage from First Bank and McDonalds but we had zero license plate abilities to be able to find out who the person was. That took us two months of working that case and we have finally made a positive ID on that individual who is now being charged here locally through the FBI, through the federal investigation with at least seven other charges nationwide that the FBI is charging this one person with based on what we did over 2 months.
Carter cited a Car Corral theft, the Banterra Bank ATM hit, two mowers stolen from SI Trading and Supply, a Consumers Gas robbery, and the Daniel Poshard arrest that happened in Evansville thanks to Flock cameras there.
Carter says he’s secured a 2-year agreement and had three of the cameras for that period paid for through a grant from the Absher Charitable Foundation and impound fees. He was asking for the city to purchase three more utilizing TIF funds. The total investment is going to be around $40,000 over 2 years. Despite Cook’s trepidations, the council did vote to move forward and did so unanimously.
Over the other 15 minutes of the session, Carmi Council reappointed Chris Marsh to the Police Commission for 2 years beginning January 1st. Additionally, the board agreed to an engineering agreement with Brown & Roberts for a Jessup Street project. Mayor Bill Stendeback says that project is to fix a storm drain that’s running into the sewer system. He says there are several of them throughout the city that need to be addressed. The city plans to pay for a good portion of that project with an estimated $130,000 Energy Transition grant they’ve received. Council also approved the purchase of a new truck for the water department at a cost of $49,915 through the state bid process through Rice Motors. The truck they’ll be replacing is a 1994 that the city has been putting “a lot of money into” to keep it running.
Alderman Jack Bradshaw reported he’d been in touch with City Supervisor Brad Attebury about lighting on 5th Street and also some in the Sunnybrook neighborhood.