10.16.23 MEETING MINUTES - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Council Monday, October 16, 2023 Page 18 Mrs. Jurcisek stated, I did hear that they are putting cameras on the busses. I think it's supposed to be completed at the end of this year. I don't know how that works with the police department. Chief Matias asked, are those cameras for traffic or for the bus? Mrs. Jurcisek replied, I don't know. Chief Matias replied, I haven't heard anything about cameras on the buses. Mr. Murphy stated, I am not speaking as an expert, but I heard from a friend of a friend that there's a certain percentage of buses in each school district that have these cameras on them. I don't think it's every bus, but I think it's a new law that came to be. That corroborates with what Jen's hearing, that some buses are going to be getting cameras. Mr. Meyers asked, do you have the Revised Code for that? Mr. Murphy asked, do I have the Revised Code for that, right here -in my back pocket. No, I don't. Mayor Bodnar stated, we will look into it. Ms. Calta replied, I do know that truckers have an amazing amount of cameras on their semis. I wouldn't be surprised if buses don't start having it. Chief Matias replied, we can put cameras on anything. They have the technology out there. It's just the enforcement side of it. Those would be the schools. That wouldn't be ours. Ms. Calta replied, they would have to share it with us or give us access to it. Mr. Williams stated, he seems to keep referring to this no tolerance policy regulation initiative. Is that something real? Is that something that needs to be talked about? Chief Matias replied, our officers are instructed that if they have a school bus violation they write the ticket. When I talked about discretion, what my point was is that for an officer to issue a ticket especially for a serious violation like passing a school bus, if the person contests it and the officer goes to court and testifies that they saw a violation, describe the violation and be 100% sure that they witnessed the violation. When I talked about discretion, if the officers don't believe there was a violation, I can't have them writing the ticket. That's the point I was trying to make. So the zero tolerance, sure, it's just semantics. We can say zero tolerance and that is what the officers are instructed to do. But when I discuss discretion, they have to be sure they saw a violation. You can't be like it was a close call or maybe it was a violation. Mr. Williams stated, his concern seems to continuously be that there's not a no tolerance policy. That's what I keep reading and hear tonight.