Commissioners to mull car tag scanners

Published 11:41 pm Friday, February 13, 2015

The Whitfield County Board of Commissioners will hold a special called meeting on Monday and among the items for consideration is a bid for a license plate scanner for the sheriff’s office.

Synergistic Software in Villa Rica had the low bid of $18,866.

Commissioners voted 4-0 on Monday to table a vote on the device until they could learn more about sheriff’s office policies for the scanner.

“The day after that, they read the article in the paper and sent us their written policy. It said that the information (collected by the scanners) would be purged every 90 days and detailed the safeguards they had in place,” said board Chairman Mike Babb.

Officials at the sheriff’s office did not immediately return a message left Friday afternoon, but County Administrator Mark Gibson said he did not expect anyone from the sheriff’s office to be at the meeting.

“I don’t want this to sound like I don’t trust our sheriff’s deputies, but these devices do raise privacy concerns,” Commissioner Lynn Laughter said at Monday’s meeting. “And we have to recognize that there is at least the possibility of abuse.”

Money for the device would come from the sheriff’s office’s budget.

The scanner, which sheriff’s officials said would be mounted on a patrol car, automatically scans all license plates in front of it and notifies deputies of any outstanding violations listed in a database.

The Murray County Sheriff’s Office has been using two of the devices for the past seven months.

Commissioners are also scheduled to vote on bids for proximity card readers for access to county buildings and grading for the Carbondale Industrial Park, and will consider a tractor purchase for public works.

“The tractor is really why we are having a called meeting. We need to make a decision on that quickly. Are we going to spend $15,000 to repair a tractor or would it be better just to buy one?” Babb said.

The meeting is at 6 p.m. at Administrative Building No. 2, 214 W. King St.