Innergex donates $21,250 toward new surveillance cameras for HCSO

Innergex community and government relations representative Janet Grothe presented a $21,250 check to Highland County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Jennifer Schinkal and Lieutenant Craig Seaman for the purchase of five new Flock Safety cameras during the Wednesday, Dec. 11 Highland County commission meeting.

Innergex is the developer for both the Hillcrest Solar farm in Brown County as well as the planned 200 MW Palomino Solar project in Highland County (in Dodson and Union Townships).

In addition to the HCSO accepting the check during the meeting, commissioners approved a contract for the purchase of the cameras from Flock Group Inc., as well as a contract with the Sheriff’s Office and US 23 Major Crimes Task Force.

According to Seaman, these new cameras will assist law enforcement by providing a “license plate reader” as well as the ability to track other details about vehicles, which they believe will “expedite our ability to solve crime.

“It goes beyond just capturing a license plate,” Seaman said. “They also capture the vehicle fingerprint, which is make, model, color, so we can search for specific vehicle, not only on a license plate, but based on, say, a suspect description of the vehicle.

“We can just input those search parameters into the system and search any camera — not only ours, but we will have access to cameras throughout the United States. That's key in producing an investigative lead for us, especially when there was no license plate visible, or maybe a witness wasn't able to see a license plate, so all we have is maybe a description of the vehicle.”

Seaman said the HCSO has identified “five locations within the county where we're going to install these cameras.

“There'll be a force multiplier for the Sheriff's Office, basically in the fact that these cameras will be stationary in our higher-crime areas, where a deputy may not always be,” Seaman said. “They run that license plate against local and state law enforcement databases, so if there's a stolen vehicle, missing person, wanted person, that kind of entry, it will send an alert to the deputies that are on duty that are logged into the system. It'll show the date, the time, pictures of that car and what camera it passed. If it's a stolen vehicle, the deputy will know in real time.”

According to Seaman, the HCSO will also have access to two other Flock cameras owned by a business in the county, and Sheriff Randy Sanders is encouraging local police departments to look into “installing them in their respective jurisdictions.

“Hopefully the number of cameras will grow,” Seaman said. “We'll have good coverage in the county and help us to solve crime.”    

Commissioners thanked Innergex for the donation.

“We’re glad that we've got these new tools for our sheriff’s department and law enforcement to use,” commission president David Daniels said. “Hopefully they'll cut down on time and bear some good results for your efforts out there every day.”

Schinkal said it will “make our jobs easier” at the HCSO

“That's almost like having five more guys on the road,” commissioner Terry Britton added.

Also during Wednesday's meeting, Grothe discussed the latest news on Palomino Solar. As was the case in her last report to commissioners in August, Innergex is still awaiting the Large Generator Interconnection Agreement (LGIA) with PJM, the regional transmission organization, for the project.

“Their latest communications indicate we'll get it by the end of the year,” Grothe said. “If we get that, then we will be able to give hard schedules.

“The good news is we continue working with our contractor, and we’re identifying laydown yards [storage areas]. We've currently received our first solar panels, and we have those in storage, and our breakers and main power transformers and other pieces of equipment are on order. We're finalizing the inverters and the trackers, so that's good news that we're moving forward.”

The company was holding a dinner with landowners Dec. 12, while Grothe also mentioned the hiring of two new staff members “associated with the project” in Lauren Odell, real estate manager, and Nathasha Ramirez Alvarez, who is “working in development with Matthias” Weigel, Innergex's senior director of development.

Also during Wednesday’s meeting:

• Commissioners agreed to roll back a portion of the county’s property taxes for current expenses for one year, in response to recent property reevaluations, during their Wednesday, Dec. 11 meeting. Read more at: https://highlandcountypress.com/news/commissioners-agree-reduce-inside-….

• Highland County Visitors Bureau Executive Director Jamie Wheeler shared a PowerPoint slideshow of the Bureau’s activities since her last update in October 2023. For more, see: https://highlandcountypress.com/news/visitors-bureau-highland-county-pr….

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