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On Tuesday, the Troup County Sheriff’s Office requested SPLOST funds to replace the outdated and barely functioning camera system at the Troup County Jail Annex.

Sadie Lee, who heads up the Work Release program for TCSO, said the current system is like a home camera system on a DVR, but it no longer records. 

“At one point, it actually worked for playback and record, but we can no longer do that. Pretty much if you’re not sitting watching it, you don’t. There’s no way to remember or even capture or see what goes on throughout the facility,” Lee said.

Lee said that due to some of the cameras being out, they also have blind spots in the facility where you can’t see anything.

Deputy Brian Shirey said TCSO is seeking funds to replace the jail annex camera system with a system similar to one already used at the Troup County Jail.

“It can be integrated where we can see it at the jail out of the camera to help out at the annex where there are just two [officers] up there,” Shirey said.

The new cameras would cover the outside and inside the jail annex. They would not fully eliminate all dead spots but would cover all necessary areas. Shirey said the dead spots are in areas of the former work camp that are no longer in use.

Lee said the current cameras are only useful if someone is actively watching them, and they have to watch from inside the jail annex.

“There’s no way to record anything that goes on. If there’s something that happens, we can’t play it back to see what happened later because they no longer work,” Lee said.

There are currently 16 cameras in the jail annex. Shirey said the newest of them are at least seven years old, but some are upwards of 15 to 16 years old.

The updated camera system from AdaptToSolve, which provides cameras for all county facilities, costs $43,755.48.

Purchasing Director Diana Evans explained that the camera system does not need to be bid out as AdaptToSolve has the state contract.