Society Hill Police Department gets body cameras
By Melissa Rollins, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
Police officers in Society Hill will soon have body cameras, according to a report from chief David Young during the monthly town council meeting Feb. 14.
During Young’s report to council, he told them that he had ordered cameras to replace equipment that no longer worked.
“Over the past six weeks, I’ve been trying to assess the department and its current state to see if there were are any improvements, any basic needs, that need to be addressed,” Young said. “There have been some equipment issues that we’re addressing. I explained to the mayor that if we have equipment, it needs to be up and operable or it needs to be replaced. One major priority is that we need to get some body cameras.”
Young said that cameras were necessary, even for a small town like Society Hill.
“They may have had some body cameras that were given to the officers in the past but they haven’t been working for a while,” Young said. “It has been mandated that we have got to have these body cameras; it is something not just for the public but it is also needed for the officers, for liability reasons, to protect the town.”
Another thing that Young has been working on is making sure that all town streets were easily identifiable in the event of an emergency.
“I went out and we did an assessment of all of the street signs,” Young said. “I went from one end of the town to the other and we had about 14 or 15 signs that were damaged or gone. We really need that up and going for the emergency services vehicles.”
Young also told council that he was working to draft up a handbook of standard operating procedures because the police department did not have one.
“Right now the department is operating like departments did in the past,” Young said. “I’m going to get with some other agencies and I am going to start drafting up some policies and procedures for the department; there are very minimal in place right now, if any. Today, you need some standard operating procedures for just about everything you do. Our goal is to get the police department up to the standards it should be.”
In other business, council gave second and final reading to two ordinances discussed in the January meeting.
Ordinance 05-2016/17 made modifications to sections 2.303, 2.305 and 2.306 of Article III regarding town elections.
Section 2.303, regarding the date of elections was changed to say: “All general Council elections shall be held on the first Tuesday, after the first Monday in November, in each odd number year.”
The phrase “Petitions shall be required” was removed as item B of section 2.305.
Section 2.306, regarding filing fees, was amended to say, “The filing fee shall be 1% of the salary for the four-year term of the office the candidate is seeing. If a vacancy occurs, the filing feel shall be prorated.”
Council voted unanimously to approve a new handbook and revoke the old book. The new handbook puts the town’s vacation and holiday days more in line with Darlington County. Town employees will now get 11 paid holidays. Employees with the town one to three years will have five days of paid vacation a year; an employee with the town four or more years are given 10 days of leave a year.