East Bay Township is now the third community in Grand Traverse County to purchase license plate surveillance cameras.
Township trustees voted 4-1 to buy seven cameras from Flock Safety at its monthly meeting. It’s a five-year contract worth up to $89,000 and payments renew each year.
Trustee Glen Lile was the only dissenting vote for a five year contract.
“My concern is we have nothing to base this on as far as what it’s going to do for us," Lile said. "I don’t have a problem with a one or two year [contract] providing that there is an out in that contract."
Flock told the township it can opt out of its contract, if it pays a fee to remove the cameras.
Garfield and Peninsula townships have also purchased them.
“We kind of wanted to walk before we run, so to speak," said Capt. Randy Fewless, with the Grand Traverse Co. Sheriff's Office. "[We] wanted to focus on some of those areas around Traverse City to begin with to see how productive we can be with these."
License plate cameras will be used to store vehicle makes and license plate numbers to aid investigations, stolen vehicles searches and missing person alerts.
Trustees will require the Grand Traverse Co. Sheriff's Office to present data every July to see if the cameras are effective.
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