As a city and county, we are blessed to have a safe and secure jail and a competent staff to house and watch the inmates serving time there.

Through the years, the Warren County Regional Jail has grown in size and has seen many positive changes. And while jails are supposed to be safe places that keep criminals away from law-abiding citizens, there are always more ways to provide additional safety measures and to give those working in the jail a better view of what is going on inside the facility.

That is why we are happy the jail has ordered $134,755 in camera equipment after the purchase was approved by Warren County Fiscal Court on Friday. Currently, the jail has just over 100 cameras throughout the facility. The upgrade will add 86 new cameras and improve the server system that holds all digital imagery.

What is significant about these cameras is that they cover blind spots. The purchase also puts a camera in every housing unit.

Currently, the jail’s main control room is the central area for viewing activity captured by jail cameras. Deputies monitoring pods have mostly obscured views into the residential units. When the new cameras are installed, each deputy monitoring a pod will be able to see nearly everything happening inside that pod. This means the deputies will have eyes in every cell, which can only be a positive.

“Multiple assault investigations would have resulted in a quicker resolution and identification of the aggressor if these cameras had been in place,” Warren County Jailer Stephen Harmon said.

“I think inmate behavior will be drastically affected for the positive and when there is a critical incident, it provides us evidence that is irreplaceable, aiding us with inmate safety and prosecution,” Harmon said.

We couldn’t agree more with Harmon.

This is great news for the jail and we applaud fiscal court for voting to allow the purchase of these much-needed cameras that will make a big difference in the safety and security at the jail.

Bowling Green Daily News