Body cameras eyed for township police force

LOWER SALFORD » Finding out that the department now could tie body cameras in with existing incar cameras, that the costs would be less than previously projected, and that a grant is available to help foot the bill has the Lower Salford Township Police Department taking another look at adding body cameras.

“It’s become a little more affordable and it is now an integrated system, which it was not before, so I think this is a case where the wait and see has been a benefit,” said Police Chief Thomas

Medwid at the Lower Salford Township Board of Supervisors Sept. 16 morning work session meeting.

“We’ve discussed bodyworn cameras this year a lot,” he said. “It’s been a front burner topic.”

The department currently has in-car cameras with two cameras, one facing forward and one backward, he said.

Adding body cameras would give another view, he said.

“You’ll have three very distinct views of the same incident, which can be beneficial,” Medwid said.

There actually would be more cameras than that because of the ones worn by other officers on the scene, he said.

Grants for body cameras were recently announced by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, he said.

“This is federal funds funneled through PCCD. It’s a 50/50 grant,” he said.

The video from the cameras would continue to be downloaded into the township server, which could be done without needing to add onto the server’s storage capabilities, he said.

The department would like to get 10 body cameras, giving it five to be worn by officers on duty and five being recharged for the next shift, he said.

“So we’re looking at something in the area of $22,000-$23,000 and PCCD would pick up half of that,” he said.

The grant application has to be submitted by Oct. 15, with the announcement of the recipients coming in December and the cameras being put into service in 2021 or 2022, he said.

The township can include the cost of the cameras in next year’s budget, then make a final decision after finding out whether it is getting the grant, he said.

“By not getting them earlier, we’re actually getting an improved product,” Medwid said. “It’s really been improved substantially every year.”

Previously, the department had made a rough estimate that the cost of adding body cameras would be about $40,000, compared to the $11,000 to $12,000 (if the grant is received) that is now possible, he said.

In other matters at the meeting:

• “Throughout this pandemic, we’ve been working

with split crews and staggered shifts just to keep everybody as safe as possible but still remain productive,” Public Works Director Doug Jones said.

“What’s allowed us to do that has been the use of our seasonal and summer employees. We had a fantastic crew this year. They’ve really stepped up.”

That allowed the department to get a lot of work done that it would not have otherwise been able to do, he said.

With the seasonal employees jobs ending, the public works department will again go back to being a single crew with normal operating hours, while continuing appropriate safety measures, as of the beginning of October, Jones said.

• Stephanie Butler, the township’s traffic engineer, said there is still work to be done before reaching a final conclusion, but a draft version has been prepared of a study done to see whether trucks should be banned on Camp Wawa Road.

“I think we still have some discussions with township staff to go through what we see are the concerns on Camp Wawa,” she said. “At this point, we’re not strongly in a position to say that we would recommend a truck restriction.”

The Camp Wawa Road bridge has been closed since 2013, but is now scheduled to be replaced. That work is scheduled to begin in the next few weeks, Jones said.

One of the reasons for not being able to recommend a truck restriction at this time is because there are no traffic counts for the road, Butler said.

“We don’t have good volume counts out there because it’s been closed for so long,” she said.

Before the bridge was closed, there were weight restrictions on it, but there won’t be weight restrictions on the new bridge, she said.

The road has sight distance issues that should be addressed, but those are not related to truck traffic, she said.

At the board’s Sept. 1 work session meeting, Butler said a study of whether trucks should be banned on Indian Creek Road concluded the move was warranted. At that time, the board said truck bans for both Indian Creek Road and Camp Wawa Road could be enacted at the same time.

The plans for the ban on Indian Creek Road can now move forward, with the Camp Wawa Road study and recommendations to be revisited later, Butler said at the Sept. 16 meeting.