Dolores County commissioners examine recurring security-camera failures and maintenance costs

Commissioners and county staff discussed recurring problems with the county’s security-camera systems at the Jan. 5 Dolores County meeting, including storage limits, maintenance costs and a possible need to upgrade the supporting computer to handle more cameras.

A county staff member said the county uses consumer-style cameras purchased at about $100 apiece and that the system stores short motion-detection clips for 30 days on the app unless someone accesses the camera and extends the recording. "It's a little bit delayed... maybe five seconds or so," the staff member said describing the notification lag. The staff member said all staff have access to the app for notifications but administrative access to clips is limited: "I'm the only one that has administrative access," the staff member said.

The staff member described a maintenance contract with A&Z Construction and said vendor service calls were sometimes expensive (more than $100 per visit). Commissioners asked whether school systems experienced the same problems and whether a vendor called Alpine Security had a local de facto monopoly on fire-alarm and related systems; staff said they would follow up with the school district and with contractor contacts, including "Keith Eckles" or "Keith Nichols," who were named in the discussion.

Technical constraints discussed included an 8GB computer running the camera system that, staff said, likely needs approximately 32GB to reliably operate a full set of roughly 32 cameras. The staff member said some components require periodic charging and occasional removal for maintenance, and that tradeoffs exist between lower-cost off-the-shelf systems and integrated commercial security platforms.

Commissioners directed staff to follow up with vendors and the schools and to provide further information; the discussion did not produce a procurement decision or a budget vote at the meeting.