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| Board approves camera purchase | ||
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Wednesday, March 28, 2012 By DEBBIE HALL - Bulletin Staff Writer Unbeknownst to litterers, Henry County soon will be watching. The Henry County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to take up to $5,000 from the county’s $99,000 contingency fund to invest in surveillance cameras that will be set up in various places. The supervisors directed Sheriff Lane Perry to buy the cameras and then work with the county’s project manager, Mike Amos, to determine where to place them. Perry and Amos will coordinate with the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) to install the devices on public lands, according to county attorney George Lyle. He also told the supervisors that permission from a landowner is needed before installing a camera on private property. The portable cameras — referred to as game cameras because they often are used by hunters — were estimated to cost $200 and include a battery pack that will last for several days, Perry said. He added that police-grade cameras cost $3,500 to $5,000 each. The equipment will be focused on a certain area, Perry said. The cameras are not capable of reading tag numbers of moving vehicles from which trash is tossed, he said. The devices are simple to operate and will be well hidden when they are used, Perry said. He added that some localities that use video surveillance said litterers who found the cameras took them because of the evidence they contained. Overall, however, the cameras provide a measure of success in addressing |