Mount Olive officials to address fixing town’s video surveillance system

Mount Olive police have been praised by town officials for their expeditious investigative work that led to an arrest just days following a Jan. 5 shooting death.However, during Tuesday night’s meeting of the Mount Olive Town Board concerns were expressed that a working surveillance video camera system would have benefited police in their probe.

The town’s current camera system is not operational, but a meeting will soon be held to address that issue, Town Manager Jammie Royall said during the Tuesday session.

Commissioner Delreese Simmons, who brought the issue before the board, and who is pushing for a solution, worried that the resolution to the problem will be dragged out by the town.

“Does anyone know how much the cameras cost,” Simmons inquired. “So after they come and after they tell us what we need to do, if they say they are working or they aren’t working — are we going to wait two months or three months before (acting)?

“I kind of noticed that we like to drag stuff out six months or a year. Things never happen. But this right here, my district, my community they want these cameras tomorrow.”

They want them regardless of cost, he said.

“We need these cameras,” Simmons said. “We shouldn’t have to depend on surveillance (cameras) from homes, like mine, to watch our community.”

Simmons said he feels sure the whole town supports the need for the cameras to work.

Mayor Kenny Talton agreed.

“I know that years ago (then) Commissioner Ed Cromartie brought it up,” Talton said. “It was was very well received by the community and by the board … I cannot agree with you more.

“I think those cameras that we’ve got, we need them to be operational, and we need them in more places to deter crimes and to do the job to protect our citizens, the welfare of our citizens. Absolutely, that’s what we’re going to do.”

Around 2012 to 2013 the town contracted with a company to set up security cameras, Royall said.

“They set up the server software and the initial setup from what I can tell was about $30,000,” Royall noted. “Cameras were mounted on poles.

“Between the town and the University (of Mount Olive) and Southern Bank had worked together to strategically place the cameras around. Ultimately, UMO purchased two cameras and Southern Bank purchased a couple of them.”

The company the town was working with went out of business and the town got a new contractor, he said.

However, the project was derailed by multiple issues including the COVID pandemic, a new town administration, new town manager, new finance director and new police chief and a fire that damaged town hall, Royall said.

In October of 2022 Police Chief Jason Hughes worked with Chris Jackson Electric to do some work for the town, Royall said.

A meeting was held and cameras did go up, he added.

Hughes has contacted Jackson again and a meeting has been scheduled for the week of Jan. 16, Royall said.

“So they’re not forgotten,” Royall said. “There was just so much stuff going on we haven’t gotten to them, but we are on track.

“They are first on the (to-do) list.”

Talton asked how many cameras are installed.

There are 14 and a new pole has been erected on which to place the 15th camera, Royall said.

Town Commissioner and former police chief Tommy Brown said the original company named Wildfire went out of business around 2017 after the owner became ill and the company began to decline.

The woman who kind of spearheaded the original project went to work with a company called W2D2, a camera company, that the town went with, Brown told those at the meeting.

The name was later changed to Phoenix Camera System or something along those lines because people were getting it confused with R2D2 from the Star Wars movies, he said.

“But this lady was already familiar with the system (and) with the layout so we went with them,” Brown said,

The town employed Phoenix, and the company came in and the town got a new server in 2019, he continued.

In 2020 a new camera was put on Franklin Street because that camera had been damaged, Brown said.

“The system was up and running at my retirement (September 2020). There were plans to replace like a control module/operation box that needed to be replaced.”

Plans were put in place to replace that system late 2020 and to wait a couple of months after the new budget kicked in so that the town could get ready for those costs, and then a camera was going to be placed at Burger King, he pointed out

Brown said his concern stems from what Jackson’s quote will be as comparedbto the town already having a server.

“This company (Phoenix) is already familiar with the system,” he said. “Are we going to have a complete new system put in or how is that going to work?

“I would have gladly shared that information had anyone reached out to me.”

Commissioner Barbara Kornegay said the Phoenix company should be invited to the meeting when the camera system is discussed if it is interested and is still in existence.

Doing so would allow the town to hear that company’s proposal, she stressed.

“I have spoken with representatives from that company, and they said that they had tried to make some contact here and it’s not been successful over the last year or so,” Brown said.

Kornegay said she thinks it would be good to reach out to the company.

Commissioner Steve Wiggins said he thinks there is a consensus that the town board wants the cameras to work regardless of the project’s history.

“I don’t think that a ball was dropped,” he said. “I think it was a combination of situations that started with the first company going out of business.”

That was followed by the pandemic with people sheltering in place and then the fire that damaged town hall, he said.

Wiggins said he was told a new server had been purchased, but that he doesn’t know where it is.

“But it is definitely something that we need, and we need more of them (cameras) with things going on all over town,” Wiggins said. “It would be a great advantage to have the cameras up and working and it was not so long ago that they were working.”

The key to getting anything done, especially when it comes to municipalities and politics, is perseverance, Wiggins said.

Government does not work like the real world, he said.

“It does not work like a business where you decide you want to make something happen and then get a purchase order and a work order and then you have a crew that is doing it,” he said.

Wiggins said he appreciates that the project is going to happen.

And while no money has been budgeted for the work, the thing about a budget is that it can be amended as things change and arise, Wiggins said.

“I don’t see that as a major obstacle,” he said.