SURPRISING STUFF
Body cams are, indeed, are coming to the Lake Geneva Police Force.
Are body cams in the future of the Lake Geneva Police Department? The police department has been wanting body cams for quite some time, to help protect them and the public. Lieutenant Gritzner (the grant king) has been spearheading the research and grant requests and presenting the information to the police and fire commission committee. He has reached out to other communities that use them to ask if they think they are valuable, which cameras they recommend, and the cost associated with having them.
The initial cost for the body cams including a clerk to review all the footage, the software, storing the video data, and other miscellaneous costs are around $102,000. To help cover the initial costs of body cams for the full police force in Lake Geneva the department was awarded a $52,000 grant. One stipulation of the grant was that a policy had to be written and in place before receiving the money.
Lieutenant Grtizner was readily prepared and already had one written and drawn up by the city attorney. Gritzner is hoping they can purchase the body cams next year because they already have them budgeted for 2023 but if the grant demands that they be purchased this year in order to receive the funds he is ready to present and ask the city council for the additional $50,000 if need be. The police department is fully in support of the body cams and looks forward to better protecting our community.
Installations are underway for the continuous live video feed at the Riviera.
What this installation, at the cost of tens of thousands, is supposed to create for the benefit of Lake Geneva, or its residents and visitors are, at most, ephemeral. So, people will be able to go online and look at the front of the Rivera complex at any time of the day or night. To observe what? Many of these expensively installed and placed video cams have been put in around the world, to simply die for lack of use. It turns out that people are primarily interested in what other people are doing and not simply staring at a dead geographic scene where nothing’s happening at all. Will this be the fate of the new webcam to be installed in downtown Lake Geneva?
Lake Geneva has the finest fire department around and it continues to exhibit that quality through its dedication and commitment to the community.
Even with their highest call volume ever last year, the department’s turn-around time was under a minute, and its service to the community has soared. More challenges have come in, with the hospitals and health care systems taxed to the max by the Covid variations. There are many times when ambulances have had to wait in the parking lot for hours for a hospital bed to open. ICU beds are full so ER beds are being used for intensive care unit patients, as then they can be monitored and watched closely. There are many factors playing into the situation, and not just because of the new Omicron variation of the Covid.
The healthcare field is experiencing a staffing shortage, vaccine hesitancy, an increase in other infections and viruses, Covid-19, and more. Lake Geneva’s fire chief, John Peters, wants to be part of the solution not part of the burden or problem. Chief Peters has help from a subcommittee, manned by members of surrounding departments, to work with the local health care system and hospitals in order to find solutions to the problem.
One solution is providing Teledoc services in the ambulances, which provides service. including urgent care support for chronic and complex health challenges. This means that patients can get the care they need right then and there without waiting for a bed to open, and the ambulance can get back into service faster so others may be helped. A grant has been sent in for consideration with respect to the Teledoc system, so new technology could be coming to local communities very soon.
Person of the Week
Sabra Newmann, of Richmond Post Office. One of the kindest and neatest postal workers ever, anywhere!
