Commissioner’s approve Sheriff’s request to apply for a grant for accident reconstruction scanner
MARSHALL COUNTY — On Monday, Sheriff Matt Hassel requested approval to apply for a grant for a piece of equipment that would aid in traffic collision reconstruction.
“It’s going to be through several different resources, but the grant is strictly for a piece of equipment called a FARO 3D scanner,” Hassel said.
Sheriff Hassel explained that the FARO 3D scanner is used by traffic reconstructionists to rebuild crash sites and establish directions, speeds, and measurements. These factors help to investigate traffic accidents.
The website policegranthelp.com will be utilized. “They get an administrative fee from whatever grant money they get for
us,” Sheriff Hassel explained.
While the scanner is an expensive tool, Hassel explained that if it can be funded through grants then it would be a “definite valuable tool for our community.”
When asked about how many officers the department has trained in using the scanner, Sheriff Hassel replied that there was only one. “It’s quite an extensive program, I’d like to get a second one through.”
The scanner costs approximately $67,000. Maintenance fees would be $768 per year with the first three years included in the purchase price. After the three years, the Sheriff’s Department would pay the maintenance fees.
The commissioners approved the request to apply for a grant.
Sheriff Hassel informed the commissioners that in November, he’ll be bringing an additional appropriation in front of the County Council.
“We have three major computer systems that run our jail and our dispatch,” Hassel said. Those systems include the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD), Jail and Management System (JMS), and Records Management System (RMS). These reports would be used for bookings, jail incidents, criminal investigations, any reports the officers write.
Hassel stated that these systems were purchased 12 years ago. “And although we’ve gone through several updates, that system and maintenance fees alone is about $100,000 a year. And the two servers that the system is on we contract with a different company which costs us $20,000 a year in maintenance fees. Those servers are done, they’re shot. They need to be replaced. They’re extremely expensive.”
According to the sheriff, the server vendor the department goes through will provide the server, upgrade the software, and there will be no upfront costs. There will be a contract that will be presented to the commissioners. Once contracted, the server vendor will have a backup server offsite that can restore the departments data should the department’s system crash.
With what the department is already paying in maintenance agreements, the sheriff stated that there wouldn’t be much of a difference in cost.
The towns that are operating on the Sheriff Department’s system will also have to upgrade. “We’ve already got buy in from every one of them. Culver is still looking for the money. But everybody thinks it’s a good idea, it’s a great thing to do.”
“The thing of it is, is what we have now is at end of life. The servers need to be replaced and the software we’ve got is eventually going to not be supported with the maintenance agreement,” Hassel said.
The individual towns will sign agreements with the company and not with the Sheriff’s Department.
Once Sheriff Hassel receives a contract, he will present it to the county attorney for inspection.