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Last Updated: Jul 26th, 2010 - 11:35:33 |
The City of Liberal Commission briefly met Tuesday evening with a shortened agenda since it will meet again in four days.
Liberal Police Chief Alan Sill announced to the commission the Liberal Police Department applied for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant. The grant is for $21,771 and will be used to purchase an Digital Eyewitness Media Manager (DEMM) system.
The LPD reached an agreement with the Seward County Sheriff's Office that the LPD will use all of the funds from the grant.
“The sheriff and I have come to an agreement that he will waive his portion of that shared grant allowing us an opportunity to use those funds to purchase a DEMM system, which is a Digital Eyewitness Media Manager,” said Sill.
Sill said the DEMM will be helpful.
“In a really quick understanding of what that (DEMM) is, each one of our line cars, each one of our mark units, has a in-car camera in it, which officers in the field use to record a variety of encounters and those videos are then used in prosecution, as well as in house for any complaints that might arise out of public contacts,” said Sill. “We used them for training purposes; we used them for officer safety issues. It is just an invaluable tool that we have learned to rely on heavily.”
Sill said there are maney videos, and it is difficult to house, store and retrieve those videos. The videos are also difficult to utilize.
“We have gotten to the point when it is difficult to search those encounters without a labor intensive effort,” said Sill. “The real big advantage of this system is it is searchable in every aspect of these videos."
With this new system, Sill anticipates the three evidence technicians' time will be freed.
City Comissioner Larry Koochel was concerned during approval of the vouchers about T&L Automotive receiving funds from the city's Facade program. The only change Koochel noticed was the windows being replace that the wind had blown out, he said. He asked why it was not an insurance claim.
Koochel questioned whether replacing windows and not making changes was an appropriate use of the funds.
“I am not aware of the condition is (of the window replacing), but we make that (facade program) available for any of the front facade, windows, doors, and nothing on the interior,” said Hall.
When questioned further on the incident, Hall replied that he would look in to the situation see if it was an appropriate use of the program.
“I will check into it and find out,” Hall said.
The meeting saw the first reading of ordinance No. 4388, which will amend the Standard Traffic Ordinance regarding the Seat Belt Law.
A current Liberal ordinance prohibits Liberal Police Department from stopping a driver for not wearing a seat belt unless another traffic violation has occurred. Kansas recently passed a law that allows police to pull someone over for not wearing their seat belt even if another traffic violation has not been committed. Ordinance 4388 will allow the LPD to enforce Kansas' seat belt law.
© 2008 Southwest Times
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