Council OKs cameras for MPD, Highland Park

May 7—Meridian Police Department will have some additional eyes on watch after the City Council Tuesday approved the purchase of new security cameras to be installed at the police station on 22nd Avenue and in Highland Park.

The $388,309.50 bid from Pileum Corporation/Matrix Solutions will include the installation of 48 cameras at Highland Park and 85 to 86 cameras at MPD.

Assistant Chief Patrick Gale said the cameras will be installed in hallways, interrogation rooms, overlooking the parking lot, the lobby, courtroom and other areas of the police station where officers need an extra set of eyes. While separate from the department's efforts to create a real time crime center, he said the feeds will have the ability to be monitored from the RTCC as well as by officers with the proper permissions.

"The supervisor will have access to the cameras, the front desk person will have access to the cameras and also administration can access the cameras from their phones and their desktops," he said.

Gale said the package will also include access control for some doors in the police station along with other security features.

Councilman George Thomas, who voted against the purchase, said he will not support installing 86 cameras at the police station while most of the city's parks receive nothing.

"I'm more concerned about our parks," he said. "We have people at the police station with guns. They can lock doors. They have policies on how to control prisoners. We have security in our courtrooms. At the parks, they don't have that."

Thomas said he is concerned the project's priorities are not in the right place with more than two thirds of the cameras purchased going to cover a single building and parking lot. While not a police officer, he said he assumes crime is more likely to take place at city parks than at the police department's headquarters.

"We've got 80 cameras in one place, and we don't have any at Magnolia, at Phil Hardin, at James Chaney and all the other parks and facilities, Sammie Davison, Sykes ball field, " he said. "To me, I'm old, I don't understand a lot of this stuff, but I do understand where the public is, and the public is not down at the police department."

Installing cameras at all city parks is the eventual goal, council members were told, but the availability of funding requires the city move forward in phases. Additional camera purchases are planned for the upcoming budget year which begins Oct. 1.

The cost of the cameras will be split between departments, with the police station cameras coming out of MPD's budget and those intended for installation at Highland Park being paid out of Parks and Recreation's budget.

Water Staffing

In other business, the City Council approved a one-year contract with Waggoner Engineering to help shore up staffing issues in the city's wastewater, freshwater and line maintenance divisions. The contract, which is capped at $92,500 per month or $1.1 million for the year, will include providing managerial oversight, training current city employees to step up into leadership roles and recruiting qualified workers to come to Meridian.

Public Works Director David Hodge and Waggoner Engineering's Scott Philips told the council Tuesday they plan to use funding from each of the three departments to help cover the cost of the contract. Philips said there should be enough available funding to avoid having to transfer money from somewhere else.

Thomas said his big concern with the contract is that it will eat up the three departments' money earmarked for salaries and result in the city being unable to fill positions due to a lack of available funds. He asked Hodge and Phillips to come back to the council at its next meeting with a more detailed explanation of how the contract will be paid.

A motion by Councilman Dwayne Davis to table the proposal failed in a 2-3 vote, with Councilman Joe Norwood Jr. supporting the action and council members Ty Bell Lindsey, Romande Walker and Thomas voting against it.

Approval of the contract passed by a 3-2 vote with Lindsey, Walker and Thomas in favor and Davis and Norwood opposed.

Contact Thomas Howard at thoward@themeridianstar.com