Fayetteville council directs police to return technology plan before budget

The Fayetteville City Council on Monday voted unanimously to direct the police chief to work with the city’s information-technology staff and industry partners to produce a detailed plan on surveillance and other public-safety technologies before the upcoming budget process.

Council members cited rising crime metrics and gaps in camera coverage as reasons for a measured review and for seeking cost estimates, implementation timelines and privacy and operational trade-offs. Chief Joyce told the council that the Fayetteville Police Department currently operates about 200 public-safety cameras and roughly 60 license-plate readers (LPRs), and that the department uses a mobile camera trailer and video-analysis tools such as BriefCam to speed investigations.

Councilwoman Thompson urged the chief to return a dollar figure the police would request during budget season and specifically asked for a proposal to purchase five more LPRs for the city’s southwest area. “If we want to keep our community safe, we can’t keep our police officers and our firefighters with the same budget every year,” Thompson said.

Chief Joyce said some infrastructure exists and that “there is some room for expansion” of servers and camera coverage but added that a full build-out would require additional power, networking and operating funds and likely phased deployments. The chief also said the department evaluates AI-driven analytics and occasional drone deployments but declined to name some investigative tools in an open meeting.

The council’s motion, made by Councilmember Benavente and seconded by another councilmember, requests a report that covers specific product options, capital and operating costs, staffing implications, possible reuse of existing red‑light-camera poles and what rollout could look like prior to the budget discussions scheduled for the coming weeks. The motion carried on a unanimous voice vote.