VIDEO: Grant Allows For More Security For Starkville

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)- Starkville Police has more eyes in the sky and feet on the streets, all thanks to a federal grant!

$37,596 is a lot of money and it’s doing a lot of good. Keeping the city of Starkville safe and protected at all times.

“$25,000 will be utilized for overtime for officers to go out, respond to calls to be in that area, work with the alcohol violations and another $12,000 will be used to purchase 2 new cameras,” says Starkville Police Lieutenant Shawn Word.

It’s called the “hot spot” grant.

Word is in charge of petitioning for these types of grants

This specific one will be used in and around the Cotton District …

“The area that we started with was Main Street, Cotton District… your bar areas where we had a lot of alcohol violations, disturbances, and officers received a lot of calls to that area of town, basically because of the bar areas,” says Word.

The cameras are located in various intersections throughout those busy areas and only assist in the officer’s safety.

“When going to calls, the dispatcher can pull up a camera and the officers will have real time information of what is going on, where they’re responding to,” says Word.

“If you got somebody who just committed a crime and we get a call of an auto burglary in progress, the dispatcher may be able to, or the shift supervisor might be able to pull up that camera, see the violator actually doing it, and if he starts leaving on foot, you know which way you need to direct officers once they’re getting there to which way he ran,” says Word.

These cameras have proven in the past to catch the bad guys in the act.

“There’s been both felonies and misdemeanors that we have utilized the cameras and it has actually helped out to identify and lead to the arrest of individuals,” says Word.

He says these cameras can be moved mechanically by shift supervisors up to a 270 degree angle.

Categories: Local News

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