VBT approves buying 14 mobile dash cameras for police cars over 5 years

The Van Buren Township Board of Trustees at its regular meeting Aug. 20 unanimously approved buying 14 mobile dash cameras for police cars on a five-year contract with Motorola Solutions.
Currently the police department has three mobile cameras under contract with Motorola in its patrol fleet and the remaining 14 patrol units have older camera systems in the age range of 6-10 years, all out of warranty and with no repair coverage.
Police Chief Jason Wright said to replace the 14 camera systems ala carte is not cost effective, since the price goes up each year.
Chief Wright said by updating the 14 patrol unit mobile dash cameras under a five-year subscription plan, all patrol unit dash cameras will be integrated into a single system for video storage as well as warranty coverage.
“The entire patrol fleet mobile dash cameras system will be completely up-to-date with technology,” he said. “And all 17 marked cars will have brand-new cameras.”
By buying them all at once, the $12,000 are $10,000, and the township saves money.
The 2024 payment is $42,915 from the police technology line item. Payments for 2025-2028 are $29,302 each year from the contracted services line item. Total cost is $160,123.
Absent and excused from the Aug. 21 meeting were Clerk Leon Wright and Trustee Sherry Frazier.
In other business at the 40-minute meeting, the board:
• Approved renewal of the vendor agreement between the police department and the Wayne and Romulus police departments and Hegira Health, Inc. for a shared behavioral clinician to be embedded with the consortium agencies. Cost is $18,091.83 for 2024, which is in the existing budget, and $36,183.67 for the 2025 budget. Deputy Chief Joshua Monte said the existing clinician, Anesha Williams, is with VBT police once a week and follows up on cases. She is available to co-respond to mental health calls with officers, follow-up with individuals in crisis, and provide for ongoing crisis stabilization services. He said mental health calls for service are down 20% since she started helping a year ago. He said the township had a grant for the service last year and has applied again for the grant this year. Supervisor Kevin McNamara asked them to find out how much runs have gone down for Romulus and Wayne so he can have that information for the Detroit Wayne County Mental Health Network where the grant was obtained;
• Approved a three-year inter-governmental agreement with the city of Belleville to provide the city with Emergency 911, police and fire dispatch services, and a temporary lock-up facility for the police department with the cost of $204,372 in 2024, $210,502 in 2025, and $216,816 in 2026, which continues into 2027 while they negotiate the next agreement. The new agreement was approved by the city on Aug. 12;
• Approved paying DTE $33,907.20 for installing a new 120/240 volt ac, three-phase electric line extension for the 46425 Tyler Rd. lift station. The lift station is located behind the service garage and the current wiring system is undersized and has been damaged several times during construction of the community center. The current electric connection is to the community center and the line extension will come in about 200 feet south of the Quirk Road entrance. The line to the community center will be abandoned. It is 30 years old and it has never been able to run both pumps at the same time because of the electricity. Water and Sewer Director Larry Lawrence said 19 acres require this lift station and now a generator is running to power it at a cost of $6,000 a month;
• Removed from the agenda, without explanation, a request to approve an updated fee schedule for the community center. Changes are reduction of the lost key tag fee from $10 to $5 and addition of language “Special event rentals of other Township/VBC facilities may be available at the discretion and approval of the three full-time electeds”;
• Heard Supervisor McNamara tell of a letter the township got praising Officer Perez who stopped to help a lady having problems with her car key. His service was very much appreciated;
• Heard several residents speak out against radioactive waste coming from New York to Van Buren Township’s Wayne Disposal. McNamara said the non-hazardous contaminated waste is well within the ability of this landfill. He said this is the safest facility in the country and the township will monitor the routes as it always does. He said they are required to take I-94 to Rawsonville Road to the North Service Drive and then the half mile to the landfill. When asked about how much the township gets from the landfill, McNamara said it gets 50 cents a ton and about $800,000 a year and it doesn’t fluctuate according to what is being brought in. He said several elected officials are holding a town hall on the issue at 7 p.m. Sept. 4 at Wayne County Community College;
• Heard Kim Smith of Morton Taylor Road say the speed limit is 55 mph on Morton Taylor between Ecorse and Van Born and people are speeding and accidents happening. A few hours earlier that same day there was another accident. She would like to have the speed reduced to at least 45 mph. It was pointed out this is a county road, but McNamara said the township can order and pay for the signs and then get the county to approve the reduction; and
• Heard Cassandra McDonald ask the board if the township is still committing unfair labor practices. She referred to the recently firing of the highly praised community center building administrator Stefan Harvey. McNamara said he would talk to her after the meeting.