Finney County to buy LEC security camera system

Finney County commissioners on Monday approved a roughly $341,000, unbudgeted spending request by the Finney County Sheriff’s Office to buy new security camera equipment for the Law Enforcement Center that will replace aging, failing equipment and upgrade video surveillance in the 37-year-old building.

Finney County Sheriff Kevin Bascue told commissioners the need to buy new equipment became urgent as it became increasingly difficult to rebuild or refurbish failing equipment, leading to security concerns at the LEC, specifically in the jail area.

“We just felt that for security reasons, we just needed to get a new system,” Bascue said in a separate interview Monday.

The sheriff’s office plans to buy the equipment from Johnson Controls of Wichita. Equipment in the company’s $341,701 quote includes 48 cameras, three network recorders, two video monitors, multiple mounts for the monitors, a controller board and various other equipment. Bascue said he didn’t have a specific timeline for when the new system would be installed.