MILFORD – Milford Police Chief Kevin Southard has really turned the city of Milford around.
Town Hall meetings are held monthly on the third Wednesday and he states, “I have an open door policy that allows any citizen, even if they don’t reside in the city limits, to bring issues for me to seek resolution or clarity for them.
“These meetings have allowed me to get to know the citizens and various issues they deem important.
“I am also hoping to get positive results from a grant process by late Spring.”
At this month’s meeting, questions regarding the grant to get another police officer and install a Flock camera system in Milford was discussed.
While Southard acknowledged Flock cameras are somewhat controversial for privacy issues, he said the city is hoping to get four or five cameras that read license plates of any car coming into the city.
“This also allows us to use other cities/state data to look at where a vehicle might frequent,” he explained.
“Let’s say we have a license plate and want to know if this car is seen anywhere else regularly, we can pull up other jurisdiction’s camera data and see where it shows up which could be their unlisted address or work area.”
Southard said it gives the police department a tool to locate criminals who commit offenses while also tracking their movement.
“We plan to have one camera solely focused on the Road Ranger to provide 24-hour coverage for investigating theft offenses that occur, we have had several there recently.
“About a month ago, we located a missing child through the Flock camera in Waxahachie that gave our officer the description of the vehicle and he made the stop when they came through Milford. We found the missing girl; she was fine by the way.
“It is a great tool for stolen vehicles and we have recovered those in the past year.”
Milford’s Police Department currently has three full-time officers and two reserve officers.
Southard said he expects to hire two additional reserve officers soon.
“I hope to get at least one officer on the federal grant, which pays 75% of that officer’s salary for three years to help with the cost,” he explained. “We have an opening on night shift to provide full seven-day coverage and that grant will allow us to accomplish that.”
There are also plans for a School Resources Officer, but Southard said that is planned for the next school year through a partnership with the PD and the school district to defray costs. This will be done through a state-funded mandate, hopefully beginning in the fall.
“I hope to have five officers and a few reserves in place by late summer,” Southard concluded.