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Dispatch center console, sheriff’s office license plate reader funding approved

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FARMINGTON – At their meeting on Tuesday morning, Franklin County commissioners approved payment for a new dispatch center console and accepted a federal Homeland Security grant for license plate reader cameras for the sheriff’s office vehicles.

Commissioners approved payment of a Zetron console for $166,516, with half of the cost of both the console and the installation by Communication Consulting Service Inc. to be paid by the county’s tax increment financing fund and the other half will be paid for out of the county’s undesignated fund account.

Communications Director Stanley Wheeler said the new console will provide an upgrade to the county’s communications system with the latest technology and replaces an outdated 12-year-old Motorola model system currently in use. The console serves all four workstations at the county’s dispatch center.

With payment authorized, installation of the console begins this afternoon. Both the old and new console systems will run side by side until all the dispatchers are trained on the new system. Once that’s accomplished, the old system will be pulled and the new one will be fully up and running. Once the new technology is incorporated it will enhance the communications system, especially the radio over internet system, Wheeler said.

In an ongoing effort to improve emergency service communications in Franklin County, equipment associated with a radio over internet protocol was installed in the towns of Weld, Strong, Phillips and Wilton to improve radio traffic in those areas that historically have had the most difficulty making connections.

In other action, commissioners accepted federal grant funding for a license plate reader to be used by the sheriff’s office cruisers.

Chief Deputy Steve Lowell said they received approval for federal funding to purchase a license plate reader which consists of two cameras for $21,000 for one year or $26,000, for a five-year period.

Also known as license plate recognition, the specialized cameras with built-in software help identify and record license plates on still or moving vehicles.

“The license plate reader automatically runs the hit list,” Lowell explained to commissioners, to alert law enforcement if a vehicle has been reported stolen, for example.

The funding, through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Stone Garden Grant program and is administered through the Maine Emergency Management Agency, traditionally funds border security activity such as increasing law enforcement patrols. The Sheriff’s Office also has received funding for two snowmobiles and other equipment under the grant program.

Lowell said the state is in the midst of setting up a service that will allow interface with law enforcement for a statewide system of information sharing. The funding will purchase two cameras that will be mounted on one patrol vehicle at a time. The department’s fleet of cruisers will all be wired with software to accept the cameras so they can be moved from vehicle to vehicle.

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