Upon recommendation of Mayor Quint West, the Pine Prairie Village Council heard from Police Chief LC Deshotel about reimbursement for cameras.
The issue arose after the police chief purchased three cameras costing nearly $1 thousand. “We’ve always reimbursed him, but I just wanted to make sure that they were being used for police usage,” Mayor West said.
The mayor also questioned whether or not the public needed to be notified where the cameras were going to be placed. The chief and Village Attorney Greg Vidrine both acknowledged the answer is no.
As he addressed the council, Chief Deshotel stated, “if people start breaking in a home or something, we can put them at different areas.” He added, “I got it set where when they go off, it yakes a picture, and it’ll come to my phone.”
Mayor West further stated, “I think the fire department just put some up because they had problems with people taking the diesel.”
After hearing from the chief and the mayor on the issues, the reimbursement was given a green light to proceed.
The council further followed suit of the police jury and other municipalities in the parish to adopt new policies and procedures. “We changed a few things,” said Mayor West. “We put some things in place like how we collect money and how we keep receipts. We put all of that into policy.”
In other business, the council:
• voted to approve amending the 2017 fiscal year budget
• voted to adopt the 2018 fiscal year budget
• and voted to approve a pay raise for the village clerk.