Village Council voted to increased police Chief Richard “Dick” Flanagan’s salary from $45,000 per year to $52,000 per year. The wage increase was approved through a motion by council last month to compensate Flanagan for his additional duties as code enforcer, but council did not pass an ordinance making it so.

That had been tabled from previous meetings because the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Board expressed concerns about combining pay for the two jobs as it pertains to pension and retirement benefits, forcing council to legally determine how it should compensate for code enforcement duties.

But on Thursday, Mayor Vincent DiFabrizio said his pension would remain the same.

Before council passed the ordinance and made the raise official, DiFabrizio asked Flanagan if would continue to do the job the mayor had asked him to do.

Flanagan said yes. He also said Ohio Revised Code makes the code enforcement office part of his job as the village’s top policeman.

“I have two documents here stating that it is my duty to uphold the ordinances of my municipality,” said Flanagan. “So there is no question if I will continue to do this job as well because it’s already apart of my job as your chief.”

Council also approved new village ordinance to allow its police department to use a photo speed laser device to catch and fine speeders more efficiently.

The new ordinance will allow police officers to use Blue Line Solution’s DragonCam. The DragonCam is a hand-held laser that lets an officer conduct a traditional traffic stop or capture a violation with the photo laser and issue a citation by mail.

A few council members, including Mike Doyle, said they were worried about the “automated camera systems.” However, Mark Hutchinson, Blue Line Solution founder and CEO, said the DragonCam is operated by an officer. Nothing is automatic, and nothing goes on a pole or in a stop sign, he said.

“The advantage over pole-mounted photo enforcement systems is this unit places the tool in the hands of an officer,” said Hutchinson. “Since the violation is witnessed and captured by an officer, he can testify to the validity of the violation.”

If the tool catches a violation, the data will be sent to Blue Line Solutions and the offender will receive a ticket in the mail. The offender then has three ways to pay: by mailing a check or money order to the address on the ticket; by paying on a website; or by paying by phone.

Hutchinson said an officer has to look at a vehicle through a scope and pull a trigger for the camera to send the data and photo to them. The tool will determine if the vehicle was going over the limit the officer sets on the camera. He also said any photo sent to the company will show where the laser is on the vehicle so the offender cannot say the officer wasn’t aimed at that person’s vehicle.

“We get all the data and photos, we then match plates to the vehicle and send them back to the local department,” said Hutchinson. “It is then up to the chief which vehicles get a ticket from us.”

Blue Line will supply the village with warning signs, Hutchinson said. The police department would then take two weeks to train on the new tools, which would give the public two weeks to be notified and warned of the new system going into effect, Flanagan said.

COMMENTS