Etowah County approves equipment purchases to meet needs in sheriff's office
The Etowah County Commission approved the purchase of body cameras and tasers for sheriff's office deputies, as well as maintenance agreements for cameras in the county detention center and its two whole-body scanners.
Those were just some of the needs Sheriff Jonathon Horton has discussed with commissioners in recent meetings.
Horton said some of the purchases have been delayed for some time. A new van is needed to transport prisoners to state prison — something the sheriff's office is required to do within 30 days after someone is sentenced to state prison.
Horton said normally, the van should be replaced every three years. The 2013 model in use is nine years old and has travelled 287,000 miles.
"These are state inmates," the sheriff said. "You don't want to break down on the side of the interstate with them."
The van purchase is a pressing need, the sheriff said. adding that he hoped the purchase could be made from the state bid list.
However, county Chief Administrative Officer Shane Ellison said during Tuesday's meeting that it doesn't look like that will be possible, that the county will have to bid the purchase.
State reimbursement for holding state inmates in the county jail will pay for tasers and body cameras purchased from Axon. Ellison said the state is giving a partial reimbursement for housing state inmates, totaling about $530,000. By using it to pay for some of the needed purchases in the sheriff's office and jail, he said, the county will be spared having to pay for those items later.
Horton said body cameras and tasers have not been replaced since he took office in 2019. The cameras will be an improvement, he said, and include a feature that activates them automatically if there's a loud noise — such as a gunshot. The equipment that is being replaced still can be used, he said, for sheriff's office personnel working other duties, such as courthouse security.
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The new cameras will be better, Horton said, for the downloading and storage of information. He said this purchase should give the office coverage for five years, at a cost of just under $400,000.
The commission also OK'ed a maintenance agreement for the whole-body scanners used in the detention center. The cost is $8,500 per scanner (the center has two). Chief of Corrections Keith Peek said everyone coming in and out of the center passes through the scanners — prisoners, employees and volunteers.
"It has slowed the contraband down," Peek said.
Some things — such as drugs in a plastic bag — can look like part of a body on the scanner. Peek said corrections employees get better at spotting such items as they use the equipment.
Anyone caught bringing contraband into the jail is charged, he said.
The purchase of tasers and cameras was approved despite a "no" vote from Commissioner Jeffery Washington. He questioned why the commission didn't get a share of the reimbursement money from the state. He said the commission gets money from the detention center's phone service agreement, and questioned why that's not the case with other funding sources, including the detention center commissary.
Commission President Johnny Grant said these state funds are reimbursement for something the jail did — housing state inmates. If the money is not used for these purposes, he said, the county is likely to see requests for funds to pay for them later.
Washington said the sheriff's office has a budget and the county has a budget. He questioned why such expenses don't come out of the sheriff's office budget.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Etowah County OKs purchase of body cameras, tasers
