Jacksonville Police Department acquires camera trailer to help keep community safer

JACKSONVILLE, ILL. (WAND) — The Jacksonville Police Department has purchased a camera trailer with the hopes of making the community a little bit safer.

According to Jacksonville Police Chief Doug Thompson, it's currently deployed at the Municipal Parking lot in the 200th block of South Sandy Street, behind a few bars.

The location is meant to help monitor crowds on the weekends.

"Sometimes on the weekends, we have a large crowd that'll gather and then they'll cause disturbances. They'll fight. A few months back we had issues where there were some firearms discharged and an officer was injured while trying to effect an arrest. So we thought with the weather warming up, this would be a good place for our first deployment," said Thompson.

The camera trailer cost a grand total of $73,000 dollars. The Morgan County Emergency Services provided $20,000 and the Morgan County Fair Board provided another $10,000.

"And then we used federally forfeited funds that we've gotten from other seizures. So we took the federal money and used a good portion of that, that was about 60% of the cost," said Thompson.

The camera is covered in flashing red and blue lights, as well as a number of JPD logos to ensure it is seen by all members of the community. The hope of deploying this camera trailer is to help reduce crime and keep eyes on certain areas at all times.