Remote cameras give Sheriff’s deputies an extra set of eyes

The Neshoba County Sheriff’s Department has a couple of extra eyes available to monitor potential trouble spots.

The Board of Supervisors during their regular meeting on Monday approved a six-month service subscription with Covert Cameras for the sheriff’s department at a cost of $264. 

Sheriff Eric Clark said the cameras keep tabs on possible trouble areas when no one is around.

“We have a couple of cameras that allow us remote access,” Clark said. “They actually send us photos to our phone that we can use for surveillance.”

For example, the cameras might be placed around a dumpsite in the county where people are littering or leaving garbage. Another use would be to keep an eye on a church that has been broken into a time or two.

“We use it as a tool to monitor activity in an area of concern,” Clark said. “I had a church that was repeatedly being broken into. We installed the camera to find out what kind of activity we were having when no one was there.”

The cameras are not new and are now being utilized, Clark said.

In other matters during Monday’s meeting, supervisors voted to take the following actions:

• Approve an interlocal agreement between the Sheriff’s Department and the Neshoba County Schools to provide resource officers for the 2021-2022 school year;

• Accept the meal log and the detailed billing report from the jail. Supervisors accepted one resignation from the jail and approved the hiring of Jacob Melton as a jailer. Supervisors approved 50-cent-per-hour raises for four jail employees who completed their Correctional Officer Certification training;

• Approve a road crossing request from Central Water Association on Road 743;

• Approve a request from the Circuit Clerk’s Office for the removal of a Toshiba E-455 Copier being used in the Election Commission office;

• Approve requests from the Neshoba County School District for five loads of sand and two loads of gravel. Supervisors also received the district’s audit report from Fiscal Year 2020 which ended June 30, 2020;

• Approve a request from the Philadelphia/Neshoba County Career Technical Center to trim limbs hanging over the fence line;

• Approve travel requests for Emergency Management personnel to attend the MEMA District 6 quarterly meeting in Decatur on June 17, and the District Fire Coordinator Meeting at Lake Tiak-O'Khata on Aug. 4;

• Approve paying the following out of order claims to CenterPoint Energy for work at the DHS office, $40; the Courthouse, $858, the Justice Court, $28, and the old Jail $42;

• Accept the Purchase Clerk’s report for May and the claims docket for June 7, 2021; 

• Accept Weyerhaeuser’s application for exemption of ad valorem taxes for 2020 totaling $1,205,544.