By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
City of Parsons Police Chief Kevin Keplinger updated the City of Parsons Council March 5th on his department’s efforts over the past couple of weeks. Of the issues raised in the meeting, Keplinger reported an increase in encounters with homeless individuals in the City and the struggles his department has seen during the encounters.
Keplinger addressed the Council on the increase his department has seen in intoxicated and homeless individuals within the City. “We are aware and we are working on some, I don’t want to say vagrancy issues, but some homelessness issues within the town,” Keplinger said.
Keplinger informed the Council of a recent incident at Mill Race Park that one of his officers responded to. According to Keplinger, it involved a heavily intoxicated individual. “It is a difficult situation to deal with to be quite honest,” Keplinger said. “Recently we had an individual who was fairly heavily intoxicated at Mill Race Park. We showed up, one of my officers showed up.”
According to Keplinger, public intoxication is not an offense that his department can jail for.“Public intoxication is not a jailable offense,” Keplinger said.
There is no longer a shelter for inebriated individuals, according to Keplinger. “Our options basically and there is no public inebrient shelter anymore. The P.I. Shelter does not exist.”
Keplinger expressed frustration over the the situation and lack of options his department legally has to deal with the issues. “Our only option is to cite and release,” Keplinger said. “I am not particularly happy with that. Its just a difficult situation.”
Keplinger told the Council that he realized there was an issue, but his department was working on a solution. “We are trying to work that, but we do understand that there is an issue,” Keplinger said.
Keplinger said his department has already been in contact about applying for Congressional Directed Spending Grants. According to Keplinger, these grants would be used to purchase camera systems for various points within the City. “What I’m looking at and what we are requesting are a technology grant for cameras,” Keplinger said. “I think it is important for us going forward in the future.”
Keplinger said his concerns were tied to an anticipated influx of traffic from the Corridor H project once it is completed. “With the Corridor being completed within the next couple of years, I think we are going to see an influx of traffic,” Keplinger said. “I think we are going to see traffic from more areas then we are now.”
Keplinger said he has concerns that with communities in neighboring areas either implementing or having already installed camera systems, Parsons would fall behind and risk becoming a target for crime. Keplinger named Elkins, Bridgeport, Buckhannon and other communities as either already having systems similar to what Keplinger proposes or have already installed them. “I think if we don’t take steps, too, we run the risk of becoming a community that – I hate to use the term soft target, but – I think we run the risk of becoming an area that criminal elements can realize that, ‘we can go here and we run under the radar and they won’t know us,’” Keplinger said.
Keplinger said his department is looking at license plate readers as well as other camera features. According to Keplinger, he also received a quote on updating the system in City Hall. Keplinger said he also had a quote done for River City Park. “We are looking at a pretty comprehensive package of license plate readers that should capture, based upon where we put it, the vehicles coming in and out,” Keplinger said. “It will just give us basically traffic patterns. 30 day buffer on a lot of this. We’re looking at a lot of other camera options.”
Keplinger said a second grant application for exterior lighting was also being submitted to Congressional Directed Spending. Both grants were being submitted by the 18th, according to Keplinger.
The next meeting of the Parsons City Council will be held Tuesday, March 19th at 6 p.m. at the Charles W. “Bill” Rosenau Municipal Building located at 341 Second Street in Parsons.
