Hardin County OKs ALPR agreement, Flock cameras purchase and electronic evidence system; awards debris contracts

Hardin County commissioners on April 22 approved a multiple-use agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation to allow installation of automated license-plate recognition (ALPR) cameras on state right of way and authorized a $20,000 invoice to Flock Safety to buy cameras and software under the Project Safe Neighborhoods grant.

The court voted to let the county judge sign resolution 20-25, authorizing the ALPR agreement at TxDOT locations; Sheriff Davis requested the move. Commissioners also authorized payment of invoice INV60269 to Flock Group Inc., doing business as Flock Safety, using Project Safe Neighborhoods grant funding, with no county match required.

The measures are part of a package of public-safety and administrative approvals at the meeting. Commissioners also authorized subscriptions and master order forms so the district attorney and county attorney can adopt Atseen LLC’s ICON Fighter cloud software to allow secure electronic transfer of criminal cases and digital evidence to prosecutors and to enable secure electronic discovery sharing with defense counsel. The court approved a fiscal-year transfer totaling $13,500 out of the commissioner's case-management line, splitting $6,750 each to the two prosecutors for software purchase and renewals.

On emergency preparedness, the court accepted the evaluation committee’s recommendation to award emergency disaster debris removal contracts to DRC Emergency Services (ranked…