A community meeting held in Antioch on Tuesday night opened the door for the community to discuss topics like safety issues and license plate readers for the area.
ANTIOCH, Tenn. (WKRN) — A community meeting held in Antioch on Tuesday night opened the door for the community to discuss topics like safety issues and license plate readers for the area.
Officials claimed that they’re staying on track with the current safety plan from the data they’ve gathered. The current plan includes first addressing the areas with the greatest needs, as found by the number of complaints to the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and area crime trends.
Part of that safety plan is to add additional deputies patrol in the area and determine whether they need to increase lighting and place electronic gates along the path. Electronic gates would potentially close at certain times.
Police officials, like MNPD Chief John Drake, said that license plate readers have been shown to be effective at helping solve crime in previous pilot programs. Additionally, the community shouted in support for them, especially following the death of 34-year-old Alyssa Lokits after she was attacked on the Mill Creek Greenway.
“License plate readers in Davidson County definitely would have helped us catch that person a lot sooner than we did,” South Precinct Commander Kevin Lovell said
“The officers that responded and the citizens that were there did everything they could to help her, but the most important thing they did was they provided information,” Lovell added. “They provided video from their vehicles, they showed this person, showed his license plate, and helped us get him into custody.”
Lovell said that license plate readers have been shown to be effective. Once the department receives approval, they could have multiple vendors working with them across the county. Lovell said that the number of cameras would depend on the contracts with camera vendors.