On Tuesday, state Sen. Gene Yaw, R-23, visited the Mifflinburg Borough Police Department for a demonstration of new equipment purchased through a $146,000 state grant. The department acquired four body cameras and three automated license plate readers through the Department of Community and Economic Development’s Local Municipal Relief Program.
“I’d like to think this helps with public trust,” Chief Jeffrey Hackenburg said. “At the end of the day, transparency and accountability are the name of the game in today’s society.”
Heckenburg thanked Yaw for his support and for pushing to have the grant money awarded to the borough. It would not have been possible without the state senator, he said.
The grant includes a 10-year contract with Axon for software maintenance and guaranteed upgrades. Under the agreement, the body cameras will be replaced three times and the car cameras twice over the next decade.
The body cameras replace aging WatchGuard cameras.
“These are state-of-the-art, up-to-date, and will be automatically covered if we have problems,” Hackenburg said.
The new cameras upload footage to a cloud-based system accessible to officers, the district attorney’s office, and defense attorneys. Officers can view video remotely, and the cameras automatically activate when a Taser is deployed, Hackenburg said.
The license plate readers scan vehicles that pass by a police cruiser and alert the officer if a plate is expired, suspended or reported stolen. Officers can also set up alerts for specific license plates, Sgt. Tracy Fetterman said.
“It’s instantaneous,” Fetterman said.
Officers have been using the new body cameras since July and the car cameras since September.
If the borough had to budget for the new equipment, the council would need to set aside $14,000 to $15,000 a year, Hackenburg said.
“To make this investment all up front, it’s huge for us,” he said.
“This is all about public safety,” Yaw said. “This is something that a small community police force usually has to do manually. It gives them access to databases. It’s amazing. The opportunity came up, and it was an easy call to help out a police force in my district.”
It’s another step to modernize the police force, he said.
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