Shenandoah City Council discussed various capital projects, including police department equipment and public works requests, at a regular workshop meeting June 8.

The implementation of police body cameras was one consideration discussed at the meeting. The City Council has been in talks of purchasing the highly scrutinized devices since last year.

“It’s new technology that will help protect the officers from false accusations,” City Administrator Greg Smith said. “It also is protection during encounters with police officers. Everybody should have a body camera, if we’re going to use them. Everybody is subject to getting into a situation where a body camera should be used.”

Over the past year, the Shenandoah Police Department has experimented with different body cameras to see which device works best for their officers. According to Smith, WatchGuard is the brand the city is considering, and it would cost $19,000 to outfit the entire force—not including data storage costs that could be an additional $19,600.

According to Smith, it is unlikely that body cameras will be discussed again until city council can see what potential changes regarding the technology come about during the next legislative session.

Other items discussed related to the police department include an update on the change in policy made in 2015 to replace department Chevy Tahoes after four years instead of three, adding a community resource officer to the force and purchasing a new interview camera system.

Council also requested to return to purchasing Chevy Tahoes instead of Ford Explorers for their future fleet.

“We certainly want our police vehicles to be as safe and as lit up as possible for the officers, but we also need to be conscious of the cost because vehicles are getting more costly,” Smith said. “As council recalls, we did try an Explorer this year—it did not work out as well as we thought it would so we are requesting to go back to Tahoes.”

Public works items considered included new, fewer Shenandoah community signs to replace the existing ones, fixing the Shenandoah pool deck, purchasing a replacement 4x4 utility vehicle and purchasing an aerator to keep the community pool cool.

No action was made on any agenda items. They will be further considered at the council’s annual budget meeting Aug. 5-6.