COLUMBUS, Ind. — Three months after 57 body cameras and 54 car cameras were ordered, the AXON equipment arrived in Columbus from Arizona last October for deputies on the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department.
It’s now mid-February, and county council member Jorge Morales says the cameras are still sitting unused on a shelf.
“We have spent a lot of money buying body cameras,” said Morales in reference to the $800,000 investment that will be paid over a five-year-period.
“We are still waiting on (the county’s information technology department) to start putting this stuff together,” Bartholomew County Sheriff Matt Myers said in an interview a few days after the council meeting.
That includes installing the cameras and setting up the technology that will allow for unlimited cloud storage for audio and visual data.
So what’s the problem? It’s all the other projects that have quickly accumulated for the county’s Information Technology staff since COVID-19 arrived nearly a year ago, county officials said.
As of this month, IT personnel have 3,015 hours of project requests, department director Scott Mayes said. And that doesn’t include time required to maintain the department’s own hardware and software, he said.
“We are starting to see symptoms where needs have reached a high plateau, and we are not delivering those needs in a timely manner to our elected officials and department heads,” Mayes told the council. “We’re at a crossroads where we are going to see a significant negative impact if we don’t do something.”
In regard to putting the body and car cameras to work, Mayes says he has been allowed to bring in contracted labor to work with his staff with that project.
“But we had to dilute those deployments because we are spending 85% of our time helping people do their daily functions,” Mayes said.
Requests for technical support have risen significantly because many of the county’s more than 400 employees are working from home in order to reduce the number of people in each office, county officials said.
Another recent unresolved problem concerns a malfunctioning telephone system, Mayes said.
The date that all phones will be working properly “has turned into a complex unknown at this point,” Mayes said. “When we have something like a problem with the telephone system, the timeline for completing other projects just gets blown apart.”
Although Myers and his administrators have met with Mayes and other county officials to prioritize needs, the installation of body and car cameras isn’t any closer to becoming a reality, the sheriff said.
Since many jobs have been lost and several residents are tired of being isolation, “people are uneasy right now, and they are acting out a bit,” Myers said.
The sheriff said he believes rowdy behavior makes it even more important that body and car cameras are installed as quickly as possible.
“When we have IT issues, we need them fixed,” Myers said. “But if they keep using COVID as a reason for why we aren’t getting things done, those cameras will never get in those cars.”
Mayes foresaw the need for an additional IT specialist almost a year ago, and approached the Bartholomew County commissioners about hiring another technician at that time.
But commissioners Chairman Larry Kleinhenz says county officials “sort of put a wet blanket” on the proposal.
“We thought COVID-19 would be over in June or July, so (we decided to) just hunker down and get through it,” Kleinhenz said. “Now, it’s February and we’re still up to our eyeballs in it.”
However, a total of $50,000 was temporarily placed in a fund last year that could be transferred to the new employee’s salary, he said.
The Bartholomew County Council voted 6-1 to change the salary ordinance to allow an additional IT specialist, and move the $50,000 into a fund for that person’s salary and benefits.
However, County auditor Pia O’Connor said an appropriation for the position would have to be advertised before a job opening could be created.
The opening will be for a Level 2 systems administrator with a minimum 10 years experience, as well as certifications and education, Mayes said. Council member Mark Gorbett estimate the cost would be about $100,000 for salary and benefits.
O’Connor said she may be able to supplement the new employee’s salary with federal CARES funds, which are provided to help address problems caused by the virus. Another way to help fund that position include postponing a few projects, Mayes said.
