The Elizabethtown City Council met for a work session Monday afternoon.
Elizabethtown Police Chief Jeremy Thompson gave the council an update on the EPD. Thompson discussed the success of the city’s Flock Camera System, which captures vehicle and plate data from automobiles in order to assist police work.
“Of all the years I’ve been doing it, I can’t think of a better piece of technology, a more game-changing piece of technology, than what Flock has done for law enforcement,” Thompson said. “I think many of you have heard me say before that it gives us actionable intelligence in real time on what’s going on in our city when it comes to criminal behavior.”
Thompson said the department has had various success stories, from locating a stolen vehicle on the first day the cameras went up to recovering a child that was in a stolen vehicle within an hour, and said the department plans to ask for the installation of six more cameras. Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory said at a time where the department faces hiring challenges the cameras have proven extra valuable.
“Technology is never going to take the place of manpower when it comes to police work, but what Flock has allowed these guys and gals to do is it’s made their job a lot easier, where they don’t have to put so much man power into a certain job in a lot cases because they’ve had those tools to lead them to who they needed to get to,” Gregory said.
In other meeting news, the city recognized the winners of the Christmas in the Park Poster Contest:
- G. C. Burkhead Elementary School kindergartener Maggie Coale
- St. James School first grader Kenley Overstreet
- G. C. Burkhead Elementary School second grader Taylor Garrett
- Morningside Elementary School third grader Alenea Stutz
- Morningside Elementary School fourth grader Melody Witten
- Helmwood Heights fifth grader Adair Worth.
Pictures of the winning posters and the artists behind them can be found on the City of Elizabethtown Government Facebook page.
City Administrator Ed Poppe gave an update on several city projects. Poppe said bids are expected to come in soon on the sewer project on the west side of town, one of the segments of the Buffalo Lake Trail project, and new scales for the city’s wastewater treatment plant. Poppe also said the city plans to have public input meetings after the first of the year for the community-wide streets system study being paid for by the Safe Streets For All grant the city received. Poppe said traffic work will be based on data, but the city has some areas in mind.
“We have specifically talked about, because we’ve got growth on the north end and addressing some of those projects, that we may look and target some south end projects with some of this funding,” Poppe said.
The Elizabethtown City Council will next meet for a regular meeting on November 20.
