GLEN CARBON - The Glen Carbon Village Board voted unanimously to approve purchasing new cameras for Glen Carbon Police Department vehicles, a temporary staffing expansion for the department, and the auctioning off of two surplus police vehicles.
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Trustees approved the purchase of a new Axon Fleet camera system in the amount of $196,550.56. Police Chief Todd Link said the current cameras in Glen Carbon Police vehicles were purchased in 2015 and are losing their functionality.
“Those in-car cameras have functioned well until recently, and now they’re failing very often, and I have one vehicle that does not have an adequate camera system in it right now,” Link said.
“The operating system of the in-car cameras are failing, the microphones are failing, and the company that we bought these from originally, they’ve been bought out by a larger corporation that no longer services them, so we’re trying to hold them together until we can purchase these cameras,” he added.
Last spring, the Village Board approved purchasing the “Axon Enterprise Bundle” for the police department, which included new body cameras, new tazers, and cloud video storage at a total cost of $456,960.20. Link said these new in-vehicle cameras would work well with the Axon Enterprise bundle items since they’re made by the same company. Axon technicians will be visiting Glen Carbon to make the installations, and these cameras will be transferable between vehicles.
Trustees also voted to allow the Police Department to temporarily exceed its authorized staffing to include one extra officer. Link explained that a veteran officer will be retiring this November, but they will need to put a probationary officer through the Police Academy to replace them and the window to enter that academy and graduate in time for next year is in August. Without this temporary staffing expansion, the department wouldn’t be able to replace the officer until mid-2024.
Finally, the Village Board authorized the auctioning off of Police Vehicles Unit No. 31 and Unit No. 34, a 2015 Ford Explorer and a 2017 Ford Explorer. Link said these vehicles are “no longer serviceable” and would be costly for the department to maintain. Glen Carbon Mayor Bob Marcus asked if there are already replacement vehicles for these two units, and Link confirmed that new cars have already been delivered.
A full recording of the June 27 meeting can be watched at the top of this story or on the Village of Glen Carbon Facebook page.
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