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La Cygne approves $42,376 grant for police license-plate readers
Summary
The La Cygne City Council voted 3-0 to accept a $42,376 grant from the First Option Bank Trustee Foundation to purchase three Automated License Plate Readers for the police department; Chief Mathies said the units are intended to aid investigations, not continuous monitoring.
The La Cygne City Council unanimously accepted a $42,376 grant to purchase three Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) for the police department.
Police Chief Zachary Mathies presented the department’s quarterly enforcement totals and described the planned ALPR deployment, saying the readers would have helped in cases such as the Silver Creek Pharmacy robbery. Chief Mathies told the council the devices are a casework tool and "are not intended to used as a monitoring tool." Mayor Debra Wilson and the council asked clarifying questions about intended use and operations before voting.
Council Member Thomas Capp moved to accept the grant; Council Member Keith Stoker seconded the motion and it passed 3-0. The grant package, Mathies said, includes an extended three-year warranty and was submitted through the First Option Bank Trustee Foundation. The chief told the council the grant would cover the total cost for the three units so no local appropriation was required at the time of the vote.
The council did not adopt written operational policies during the meeting; Chief Mathies described the ALPRs’ investigative role but did not present a formal privacy or data-retention policy for council approval. The council requested no immediate ordinance changes and accepted the grant contingent on standard municipal procurement and reporting procedures.
