Abby OK’s traffic cameras

By Kevin O’Brien

Local police will be able to identify and track individual vehicles based on their license plates and other features after the Abbotsford City Council approved a trio of high-tech traffic surveillance cameras on Monday.

The purchase of two license plate readers and a high-definition, AI-assisted camera from Flock Safety will enable the Colby-Abbotsford Police Department to spot vehicles involved in crimes and locate those that have been stolen. CAPD will also gain access to Flock Safety’s network of cameras, including 1,000 in Wisconsin, which means the department will receive alerts when a vehicle being sought by another police agency travels through this area, and vice versa.

According to information from Flock Safety, the Falcon-brand license plate readers can capture “clear footage of vehicles traveling over 100 mph across multiple lanes and long distances.” The Condorbrand camera provides video alerts of cars based not only on their license plate numbers, but also on the make and model and other characteristics. It can also provide “people detection” to alert police when individuals are in “a parking lot after hours,” the company states.

See CAMERAS/ Page 5 Cameras

Continued from page 1

City administrator Josh Soyk said the cameras will be placed on STH 13 north of the city, at the intersection of STH 13 and Business 29 and near the STH 29 overpass.

In an email to Soyk, police chief Alex Bowman said the new cameras will be a “game-changer during investigations.”

The cost of the system is $9,500, which includes $3,000 per camera plus $500 for installation. Soyk said the $9,000 would be an annual cost, which is not currently part of the police department’s budget.

“It was not included in the police budget (for 2025), so it would be above and beyond,” Soyk told the council.

For this year, Soyk said the city has $15,000 in unallocated money in its budget after the local library received more funding from Clark County than originally anticipated. Ald. Mason Rachu suggested using a portion of the unallocated budget to pay for the cameras this year, but then asking that the CAPD to include the ongoing annual expense in its yearly budget starting in 2026.

Ald. Kevin Flink said he could see how the cameras could help with an Amber or Silver Alert – used to find missing or abducted children and seniors – but he questioned the longterm usefulness of the system.

“The crooks seem to learn these things real quick, where the cameras are, and avoid them,” he said.

Of the 1,000 Flock Safety cameras in Wisconsin, Soyk said the ones furthest north are in Marshfield, so installing them in Abbotsford would extend the company’s network.

“With Highway 29 being a major corridor, you would at least know if they (suspects) made it up to 29, and if they went east or west on 29,” Soyk said.

Ultimately, the council voted 71, with Flink voting no, to approve the purchase of the cameras on the condition that the future licensing cost be incorporated into the CAPD’s future budgets.

“If for some reason we don’t like it, then we just don’t renew the contract, right?” Ald. Jeremiah Zeiset said.

“Right,” Soyk said.

Other business

■ ■ The council approved a motion to use $5,000 from the CAPD’s K-9 fund for a titanium tooth implant for Hemi, the department’s police dog. Hemi broke one of its canine teeth while biting on its cage, and the implant was deemed necessary.

■ ■ Dan Borchardt, project engineer from MSA Professional Services, went through a rundown of projects being worked on by the company, including an extension of Opportunity Drive planned for this year in the city’s new industrial park. MSA’s schedule calls for bidding out the project in March and awarding a contract in April so construction can occur from May to September.

Another upcoming project is a planned reconstruction of North Fifth Street, from Spruce to Maple Street. In order to qualify for grant money, the city needs to prove that at least 51 percent of the residents in the construction area have lowto- moderate incomes. Ald. Selenia Espino has been helping city workers collect income surveys, and only a few more are needed for the city to meet the threshold.

■ ■ Soyk said he would be meeting with electrical subcontractors at the city two new wells, 28 and 29, to figure out what is wrong with the well’s transducers, which measure water levels.

“Once that’s figured out, they’ll go online,” he said.

■ ■ The council approved three purchases using leftover money from the city’s recently completed water tower project.

The purchases include $6,900 for SCADA equipment that will allow the tower to communicate with the city’s water treatment plant and issue low water level alerts. The city will also spend $7,400 on two security cameras at the water tower (which includes a $2,600 annual licensing fee), and $7,000 for a spectrophotometer, which is used to measure iron and manganese levels in the water. Using loan forgiveness money from the DNR, 60 percent of these costs will be covered by the state.