SAFFORD — Graham County Sheriff’s Office is getting an upgrade in its monitoring equipment.
On Monday, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an unbudgeted expenditure by the Sheriff’s Office to upgrade and acquire more cameras used to capture license plate data.
“It came to our attention that the cameras that we currently have could only clearly catch a certain speed, and they’ve upgraded the cameras since then,” said Undersheriff Jeff McCormies. “They would be more beneficial to us for the speeds it’s able to capture.”
The cameras currently in use can only capture license plate data when a vehicle is traveling at no more than 50 miles an hour. However, the new Falcon LR cameras can capture an image of a vehicle at speeds up to 100 miles an hour, and multiple frames at 75 miles an hour.
The cameras are also networked with other law enforcement agencies around the state and nation.
“What a neat addition to the county to have that,” said Supervisor John Howard. “Not only the country but the whole country because it benefits the whole country. It’s a great thing to have.”
It’s $90,000 to upgrade the current cameras and another $90,000 to acquire six additional cameras. The funds will come from DPS Border Grants.
McCormies said once the new cameras are in place, the existing cameras would then be made available to other Gila Valley law enforcement agencies to increase data capturing capability.
In May, Graham County Sheriff’s Office license plate reader cameras were used to track the suspect in a Mississippi triple homicide as he made his way through the county. That suspect ultimately died in a gun battle with Arizona Department of Public Safety in Clifton.
