Blytheville Chief of Police Ross Thompson asked the Police and Fire Committee to consider purchasing a mobile SkyCop unit at Monday night's meeting. While Thompson did not have an exact quote for the unit, he believed the unit would be around $50,000 plus possible additions for optional software. According to Thompson, CFO John Callens determined that sufficient funds existed in the budget to make the purchase from the Public Safety Tax, meaning a budget amendment would not be necessary. Due to the amount of money that the equipment cost, a vote approving the purchase by the council would be required.
"I don't know exactly how long that would take to get that in but I would like to get it in. We have the fair coming up this fall and I don't know how many months it would take to prepare that and get it in for our specifications," Thompson said.
The committee recommended that Thompson get an exact quote on how much a unit would cost and present it to the committee next month. Callens suggested that Thompson attempt to have a quote by this Thursday for the scheduled finance meeting if the goal was to have the unit within the next few months.
As of press time, Thompson informed the CN that he had been in contact with the distributor of SkyCop and believed that he would have a quote to present at the Thursday meeting but did not have one as of yet.
The department has also recently purchased a polygraph machine after discussing it during last month's meeting. Thompson was informed by Callens that sufficient funds did exist in the budget for the purchase of the equipment and, due to the dollar amount, it did not require a vote from the council. The polygraph machine requires specific training to use by law and a recently hired officer is certified in polygraph testing.
Thompson also reported that the Blytheville Crime Stoppers program has been very successful. Several tips have been put in through the program and many have been of use to the department. He added, that those who have made tips need to go and recheck the system because some money is waiting to be received by tipsters who have not yet collected.
"There is a number that they are assigned and it is completely anonymous. We have no idea who these people are. But if they check back in they may have some money waiting on them," Thompson said.
Councilman L.C. Hartsfield requested that Thompson tell his officers to keep watch of houses that have several cars blocking the streets and have loud music, particularly at night.
Hartsfield also asked if all of the department's policies as of 2018 have been approved by the council. According to Thompson, the last time the council approved policies for the BPD was around 2014 when the council approved policies that were model policies from the Arkansas Municipal League. Thompson reiterated that the "most important" policies such as the use of force and pursuits were covered in the 2014 approval, but certain policies, such as uniform and leave policies, have not been approved by the council. Hartsfield requested that the committee begin to receive some of those policies for council approval after review from the City Attorney Chris Brown.
In other business, Fire Chief Mike Carney reported that Roger's Hydrant Service has been working on fire hydrants throughout the city. According to RHS, 34 hydrants in the city need some sort of maintenance repair and of those 34, 13 have had a black bag place over them and have been deemed out of service. At each of these 13 hydrants, the department has already identified the closest alternate hydrant to use in case of an emergency. Carney reported that two of the 13 have been fixed so far and that an additional nine hydrants should be fixed sometime this week.
2018 annual business inspections are underway. The department has around 900 listings of locations to inspect.
In April, a firefighter sustained a leg injury working in a fire after his leg fell through an upstairs floor at a structure on Davis Street. The employee has recovered and returned to active duty.
The Finance Committee also met Tuesday for a short meeting. The committee received tax reports from Callens before approving the increase of the Wastewater equipment replacement budget and the transfer of funds from the 2017 parks grant, moving $28,000 in building repairs, $30,000 in grounds maintenance and $25,000 in equipment replacement from the surplus of the 2017 grant fund.
gwilliams@blythevillecourier.com