By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Last June, the Great Bend City Council had a discussion about a
city-wide surveillance camera system and license plate readers for the Great
Bend Police Department. In the end, the council decided the surveillance had
value but wanted to prioritize other city projects.
Earlier this month, Great Bend Network Administrator James Cell said he is still having
conversations with police department staff to place the plate readers throughout
town to provide alerts for stolen vehicles or vehicles driven by people
suspected of being involved in criminal activity.
"The software should allow us to follow vehicles toward Indiana, Texas or Mexico," said Cell. "Any department or municipality that has the same software solution, we can tag on with them. If something happened and we were trying to catch that vehicle, we can track them out to certain locations."
Last summer, Police Chief Steve Haulmark said more than 10,000 vehicles travel
across 10th Street each day. The plate readers are capable of
searching for vehicles based on paint color or if they have damage.
During the work session the city also discussed smart cameras positioned around
town that would include face and vehicle recognition capabilities to help
deter, track and solve crime.