Jasper County to add dashcams onto secondary roads vehicles

Vehicles used by secondary roads workers already have GPS tracking devices installed in them, but now some will also be equipped with dashcams. The board of supervisors approved a 12-month subscription to Verizon Connect Reveal this week, which is a software that will not only monitor work but enhance liability.

Jasper County Engineer Michael Frietsch said Verizon’s NetworkFleet, the GPS tracking software currently in use by some of the secondary roads vehicles, will be going away by the end of the year, prompting a need for a replacement. Frietsch said the new software is known as Verizon Connect Reveal.

“We’ve identified 47 pieces of equipment — all the different trucks, dump trucks, pickup trucks, crew cab trucks, everything like that — and basically identified we need tracking devices on them now that will work with this Verizon (Connect) Reveal system,” Frietsch said. “We are also adding onto that … 32 dashcams.”

The inclusion of cameras on vehicles, he added, allows the secondary roads department to better protect itself from liability issues. Frietsch said the county pays around $470 a month for the current system. The newest system would be increasing the monthly bill substantially to $1,835.

“However, we’re getting a lot more out of it at this point and the system is going to be better,” Frietsch said. “I can’t say this is going to be the ultimate solution for us. I mean there are other solutions counties are using, and I think this … will be a good opportunity for us to look at some of the other (systems).”

At this point, Frietsch sees the dashcams as an extra insurance policy in case a complaint or a claim was brought against a secondary roads worker in a vehicle. The new tracking system, he added, is “vastly better” than what is being used by the county today.

“That’s kind of where we’re at,” he said. “I think a lot of the cost increase in this is because of the number of vehicles and of course adding the dash cams as well.”

Currently, about 29 vehicles have the GPS tracking software installed. County documents show the dashcams do take up a bulk of the money. If the county was still using that many units for its new software package, it would cost a little more than $1,450. Without the dashcams, it would be closer to $670.

Supervisor Brandon Talsma liked the addition of the dashcams, especially for the trucks handling snow removal operations.

“All it’s going to take is one incident this winter if one of our trucks hits somebody else or somebody else hits one of our trucks,” Talsma said. “That dashcam is gonna pay for itself.”

Frietsch hopes that by this time next year the county will have a work order system in place that can be monitored by GPS. He did acknowledge some workers might not feel comfortable with having a tracking device on the vehicle, along with a camera in place. To him, it’s a county vehicle, not a personal vehicle.

Supervisor Denny Stevenson recalled when dashcams were utilized in the sheriff’s office. More often it got staff out of trouble than it did getting them in trouble, he said. As long as employees are doing what they are supposed to be doing, he reasoned there should not be any problems.