ELKINS, W.Va. (WBOY) — The City of Elkins is receiving a “Byrne grant” of $950,000 to upgrade several technology systems used by the Elkins Police Department.
The Police Department (PD) is specifically looking forward to using the funding for its “street camera project.” This project will bring in new cameras around the city that have license plate reader technology. Chief Travis Bennett mentioned that these new systems will better help the PD to identify, locate, and investigate throughout the city.
Chief Bennett told 12 News that they have not received the funding just yet, but hope to receive it by September, during which they will begin working on the project as soon as possible.
This project has been in the works for a while now. The Chief of Police, the Mayor, and the Head of Public Safety have been looking at systems that are used in local communities, as well as around the country. They have even spoken to many manufacturers to find the system that would best suit the City of Elkins.
While discussing the importance of bringing this project to Elkins, Chief Bennett told 12 News, “currently we have to rely on video that we see from homeowners – businesses that installed them themselves. A lot of times that leaves areas of our city uncovered. This will help us to have video in a lot more situations from everything from regular crime to traffic crash investigation, missing persons cases, but just gives us another resource to investigate those situations.”
This is a developing story that will be updated once funding is received later this year.
