La Plata council approves FARO scanner and hazard plan update, fails Wood Valley professional-services resolution

The La Plata Town Council on Feb. 5 voted to purchase a FARO Focus laser scanner for the police department and unanimously adopted the Charles County 2024 Hazard Mitigation Plan update, but moved to reject a proposed professional‑services agreement with Wood Valley Community Strategies amid conflict‑of‑interest concerns.

The FARO purchase: Captain Payne, speaking for the La Plata Police Department, said the portable 3‑D laser scanner would significantly shorten scene‑processing time at outdoor collisions and crime scenes and produce more accurate diagrams for prosecutors and civil cases. "The FARO technology will reduce the time officers will close roadways like Crane Highway, Charles Street, and Hawthorne Road," Captain Payne said, adding that current scene work relies on tape measures and "a tuna fish can full of lead" to hold markers. He said a typical large crash scene that once took hours to measure can be scanned in roughly 33–40 minutes and that the output can be uploaded into CrashZone software for automated analysis.

Police presented a funding plan to cover most of the $80,000 purchase…