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Camden County approves grant-funded license-plate readers, radios, variable message signs and LRAD
Summary
On April 7 the Camden County Board approved GEMA and HMGP grant-funded purchases of license‑plate readers, portable radios, variable message signs and a long‑range acoustical device; commissioners asked for policies on use, data governance and training before deployment.
The Camden County Board of Commissioners approved several grant-funded public-safety purchases at its April 7 meeting, including license‑plate readers, portable radios, variable message signs (VMS) and a long‑range acoustical device (LRAD).
Emergency management staff presented three separate awards: a State Homeland Security Program grant to purchase license‑plate readers, a separate award to buy portable radios for multi‑jurisdictional response, and a Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) award that will fund variable message signs and an LRAD system. Staff said the HMGP grant covers most of the expense and that county grant‑matching funds would cover the required local share.
During public comment and board discussion, residents raised questions about governance, long‑term maintenance costs and privacy for license‑plate readers and asked whether LRAD technology would be used in crowd‑control scenarios. Tom Bishaw of St. Mary's asked about LRAD decibel levels, safe operating distance and liability. Emergency management staff responded with a technical explanation of LRAD capabilities and use cases: the director said LRAD delivers a directional, intelligible voice range useful for evacuation and public‑safety alerts and described examples such as apartment-complex evacuations and silver‑alert notifications.
Commissioners approved the purchases as presented. The board also asked staff to return with operational policies and training protocols for LRAD and to clarify long‑term operations and ownership arrangements for license‑plate reader systems, including which office will hold the data and who will manage maintenance and legal compliance.
A civil‑liberties advocate in the public comment period previously urged the board to require specific limits on data retention and to involve county counsel in oversight; the board acknowledged those concerns and requested staff follow up before field deployment.
The purchases are grant‑funded; staff provided project and match figures in the agenda materials (license‑plate readers, portable radios and HMGP VMS/LRAD amounts were presented in the meeting packet). No local match was required for the license‑plate reader and radio grants; the HMGP award required a small county match that will be covered by grant‑matching funds in the county budget.
The boards approvals allow county staff to execute grant acceptance and vendor procurement under the grant terms. Staff will provide policy recommendations and training plans at a future meeting.
