MANSFIELD — The city streets will be quietly “patrolled” by two dozen automated license-plate reader cameras for another year.
Safety Service Director Keith Porch told City Council on Tuesday evening Mansfield has been awarded a $141,000 grant through the Ohio Violent Crime Reduction Grant Program.
He said funds will be used for investigative overtime costs and will also fully fund the fixed FLOCK cameras for a third year throughout the city under the grant program.
“I want to congratulate (police Chief Jason Bammann) for again going after that funding and getting it,” Porch said.
The grant was part of $1.6 million Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced on Tuesday to help local law enforcement agencies implement violent crime reduction strategies in their communities.
DeWine said 18 law enforcement agencies in 15 counties will receive funding through the latest round of the Ohio Violent Crime Reduction Grant Program.
Since the launch of the program in 2021, more than $81 million has been awarded to 175 local law enforcement agencies for targeted programs and enhanced technology that aid in preventing and solving incidents of violent crime.
“The overall goal of this program is to help law enforcement implement public safety strategies that meet the unique needs of their communities, ” DeWine said.
“Many agencies have reported success in solving and preventing crime because of these grants,” the governor said in an emailed press release. “I’m glad we’re able to continue supporting local communities through this program.”
Porch said about 80 percent of the grant obtained by the MPD will fund the cameras.
The city first used the cameras as a test program in 2022 when Porch was chief under a $22,000 grant through the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services Project Safe Neighborhood Program.
In that first year, seven cameras were placed around the city.
Porch said Tuesday there are now 60 to 70 such cameras being used around Richland County, including by the Richland County Sheriff’s Office and police departments in Shelby and Ontario.
“The technology (benefit) is huge,” he said.
The LPR camera technology reads license plates and it also can detect a vehicle’s make, model and color, according to Porch.
The camera sends information automatically and in real time to dispatchers and patrol officers in their cruisers when it detects a vehicle that is being sought by law enforcement.
For example, if a car is reported stolen in Mansfield or other communities, the information about the vehicle is entered into the national Law Enforcement Automated Data System.
If the camera detects that vehicle in the city, it will notify MPD and provide photo evidence, location, time, etc. He said the technology has led to the recovery of numerous stolen vehicles.
Porch said the cameras can also provide a benefit when there are break-ins reported in a specific neighborhood.
“If a witness saw a black Chevy truck with a broken tail light or stickers on it, the officers could enter that into the database and it would search for that particular truck, not just hitting off of the license plate,” he said.
In March, Richland County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jim Sweat said that department was expanding use of the technology, using state grant funds to increase to 16 such FLOCK cameras.
“This technology is license-plate readers that are on the roadways at specific points throughout the county,” Sweat told the Richland County Board of Commissioners. “It’s not just our cameras that we have access to.
“We have access to everyone that is on the system, so there’s thousands of cameras throughout the United States that we have access to.”
That incident began when Wooster police investigated the theft of a license plate from a vehicle. The plate was entered into the department’s Flock license-plate reading camera system.
Through the technology, police found the license plate had been placed on a silver Honda Pilot and the vehicle was traveling in the northern part of the city.
Ultimately, the vehicle was stopped and the suspect fired at law enforcement officers before those officers returned fire and shot him.
