Airway Heights cameras go online this month
AIRWAY HEIGHTS — The city is installing automated license-plate readers this month.
According to Police Chief Brad Richmond, the new Flock automated license plate readers are part of a high-speed, computer-controlled camera system mounted on street poles, streetlights and overpasses.
The cameras capture computer-readable images of license plates and vehicle characteristics, with recordings stored for 30 days, he said.
“We will have those cameras this month,” Richmond said. “This gives us the technology to help us facilitate improving the safety of our community.”
Several cameras will be installed and linked to Liberty Lake police and Spokane County systems, which already use the technology.
The same technology recently helped the Liberty Lake police arrest an individual in connection with an assault by identifying and tracing the suspect’s vehicle.
“Airway Heights applied for a grant to finance that project and I am very interested in that project, as well,” Cheney Police Chief Rick Beghtol said. “They are very expensive, at about $3,000 a piece, and the grant stipulates that we would need a minimum of six so that would be about $18,000.
“I think it’s a great program,” he said. “If I could, I would place them at all the primary egress points around the city,”
The chief said having cameras will help identify vehicles going in or out of the main passes.
“We had that armed robbery a few years ago, for example,” Beghtol said. “If we’d had these cameras to monitor traffic, theoretically, we would have been able to identify the suspect.
The chief downplayed the concerns of some critics.
“A lot of people may be concerned about ‘Big Brother’ watching, and I understand that,”
he said. “But this kind of surveillance is meant to be an added resource to enhance community caretaking.”
Airway Heights grant administrator Alise Mnati said the cameras there are important to retailers.
“Part of the reason the local Walmart was interested is because they are concerned about theft, she said. “These cameras provide an infrastructure that will hopefully reduce theft overall.”
The Airway Heights cameras were even funded by Walmart Foundation, she said.
“The local store in Airway Heights, managed by Joey Awline, approved the grant funding after we applied for it,” Mnati said. “Every day, about 3,000 vehicles go through the city, and the cameras can help monitor license plates.”
Lucas is a former Cheney Free Press managing editor. He is a nationally published author who contributes regularly to several publications across the country.
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