Mounds Police Get New Body Cams With Help From The Community

All of the officers at a small Green Country police department now have new body cameras thanks to generous people in the community.

The Mounds Police Department had body cameras, but they were falling apart, so a local business stepped up to help fill that void and also bridge the gap between the police department and the community.

“We work the whole week from sunup to sundown keeping this town protected,” said Mounds Police Chief Antonio Porter.

Chief Porter is one of three full-time officers protecting the town of Mounds.  The department had body cameras, but not enough for all of their officers and reserves.

“These cameras will aid in helping us to solve crimes and, if we have issues with the way that our officers are responding to calls, all we have to do is go to the camera,” said Porter.

He says a local business, T Bar M Energy Resources, approached them and wanted to do a “Dunk A Cop” event to help build a stronger relationship between the police department and the community, then use the proceeds to buy something that they needed.

“It’s good for them to get out and interact with the kids in the community and people can see they’re not as scary as what everyone makes them out on TV to be,” said Travis Allen, the owner of T Bar M Energy.

Allen says he’s lived in Mounds for 15 years and says he wants to police department to know that local businesses stand behind them.

“They’re actually out here to make sure we’re safe and doing things the way they should be done,” Allen said.

Chief Porter says, “we just want to make sure that we own up to everything we do and not have excuses.”

A donation like this means a lot for a small department.

“We want the public to know that we are out her to protect and serve the public,” said Porter.  “If at any time there’s a question about the way that we perform, the way we respond to the community, we will address it.”

T Bar M Energy hopes to make this an annual event and hopes to find more causes to bring people together in the community.

As for the new body cams, the police department plans to start using them as early as tomorrow.