Frankfort Mayoral Candidate Todd Morgan plans to implement technology for greater safety

Frankfort Mayoral Candidate Todd Morgan plans to implement technology for greater safety

Former Village of Frankfort Trustee and current Mayoral Candidate Todd Morgan proposes a new "low tech" strategy to help the fight against rising crime in Frankfort. Morgan states, "Increasingly we are seeing crime rising in the areas of our neighborhoods where cars are being vandalized and even stolen out of residents' driveways. My proposal calls for the installation of license plate reading technology at the entrances of our subdivisions that can record the plate number of anyone entering or leaving the neighborhood." Morgan plans on working with the community's Homeowner Association groups and Police Department to develop a series of "test neighborhoods" to measure the effectiveness of this technology and to work out any inconsistencies before considering expanding it community wide.

He stated, "At first we would want the Homeowner Associations and the residents to weigh in on the proposal before any test studies would occur. We all need to recognize the importance of privacy rights, but this technology is only able to see license plate numbers and not people." He explained that in the event of a crime in one of the neighborhoods this technology would allow police officers to use the potential information of the license plate numbers to possibly identify any offenders driving in and out. The program calls for the Police Department to be the only agency with access to the data and that data can be deleted over time if no offenses have occurred.

Morgan stated, "The beauty of this technology is that it is very reasonably priced at around $500 per entrance. This is far less costly than having a police officer sitting at a subdivision entrance 24 hours per day. In the past if you wanted this type of security it necessitated having your subdivision entrance gated. This technology acts as a virtual gate at a much lower cost."

Morgan considers public safety of utmost importance. As Mayor he would introduce a number of new safety initiatives designed to help support the police officers while being budget conscious. As part of his community safety platform, Morgan plans to add more police to help patrol the neighborhoods. However, after serving 14 years as a Village of Frankfort Trustee he is realistic about the cost of building and supporting a police force and understands that the police cannot be everywhere at all times. He continued, "Our officers do a great job with what they have but as a former Trustee I always looked for new technology to help in supporting their efforts. Twenty-first Century technology is everywhere and it is time we brought it to our community to help make our families and village safer while we go about our lives."

For further information: Todd Morgan, Mayoral Candidate, Village of Frankfort
815-464-1730 ~ Morganformayor2017@gmail.com