Krugerville Police Chief James Edland presented the council with another request for updated equipment during the March 23 meeting.
This time Edland requested a suite of new body and car cams for the department as well as new radios.
“When we set this thing up, when Cross Roads and Krugerville split up, I’m not sure how we missed this, but shouldn’t we have done this then?” Mayor Jeff Parrent asked.
Edland, Mayor Pro Tem Kristen Kromer and several officers on the force answered, saying the equipment, which was in large part brought over from the Northeast Police Department when it dissolved, was suitable to get the new department off the ground but is becoming obsolete.
Edland presented a plan for the body and car cams which features flat yearly payments and sets up a plan for upgraded technology periodically.
“Instead of just paying $100,000 outright for them, you pay a yearly fee and what that does is on the body cams is every two-and-a-half years, they take the used ones and send you new ones with updated software— that’s built into the price,” Edland said.
The radio issue dealt with the fact the department has two more officers than when it started, and officers are sharing handhelds, passing them off between shifts.
“It creates a little bit of an officer safety issue, too, because when we’re coming into work, we’re coming in without a portable radio because we’re sharing,” officer Stony Ward said. “If we get called to a hot call on our transition into the office, we’re going into that call without communication because we don’t have the portable on us.”
Three new radios will solve that problem in the short term, with more to be considered in the new budget year. The new radios will also feature encryption software disallowing police scanners from intercepting the transmissions.
“Every month since Oct. 1, our revenue has been up and our expenses down, so I’m confi dent we can find the money in this year’s budget without going into reserves to cover the first request and the second request at three,” Parrent said.
