Thanks in large part to an out-of-towner who has taken a keen interest in West Frankfort’s police department, the WFPD recently completed construction on a state-of-the-art audio/visual room which Chief of Police Jeff Tharp says will help ensure the safety of West Frankfort’s students and the security of many of the town’s businesses.

The West Frankfort Police Department was the recipient of an unexpected and significant donation in late March, when Las Vegas businessman T.J. Tyree contributed $4,000 to the department. Tyree, who originally hails from Illinois, has been a close friend of the chief since Tharp’s days with the Las Vegas Metro P.D. The two have remained in close contact ever since, with Tyree, whose company also boasts offices in Orlando and Chicago, making frequent trips to West Frankfort to visit his old friend. Those visits, according to Tharp, have fostered in Tyree a profound love for the area.

According to Tharp, the new audio-visual room could potentially be a great boon to local law enforcement and West Frankfort business owners. “A lot of businesses in town are equipped with video surveillance equipment with extended time-lapse capabilities,” Tharp explained Wednesday morning. “We previously didn’t have the means to properly review those tapes when a crime occurred, and in the past we’ve had to take such tapes to another jurisdiction with the capability to review them.” The ability to review such tapes right here in West Frankfort, Tharp said, will cut down on the department’s response time in instances when a crime occurs at a local business equipped with surveillance cameras. “We’re now able to take the video, view it, find the pertinent segment, and with our new computer system, capture photos of subjects for investigative purposes.”

“Now the room is set up to view every type of video surveillance,” said Tharp. “We’ve gotten copies of the surveillance review systems from as many businesses in town as we could to make certain they were compatible, and if they weren’t the problem was fixed. Now every business in town that uses video surveillance — we‘re able to view tapes from their system.”

Tharp said the new AV room will also allow officers and dispatchers to view live feeds from several West Frankfort schools, helping to better insure the safety of students, faculty and administrators. “We will also have the capability — it will be online before the start of school — for our dispatchers to view live feeds from Frankfort Intermediate School, Central Junior High School and FCHS as they sit at dispatch,” the chief noted. “If the need arises to provide real-time information to an officer at one of the schools during an emergency, we now have that capability as well.”

“We’re very appreciative of the contribution to the police department and the city of West Frankfort,” said Mayor Marion Presley. “It’s not often you get an individual from outside of the area who takes an interest in and is willing to contribute to the city.”
“It think it’s a good deal,” Police and Fire Commissioner Leon Sailliez said of the new room. “Anything to help our department speed up the process of making arrests.”

Tyree said it would be nice if others took a similar interest in the activities of their, and other police departments. “They’re here to help us, so the least we can do is help them out when the opportunity and need arises,” he told The Daily American. “And it helps all the businesses in town. That’s what a city’s all about.”

Tharp said local business leaders and school administrators have been very receptive of the department’s upgraded capabilities. “Before, we experienced some problems viewing tapes and CDs that certain businesses provided us with. We couldn’t view them and we would, in some instances, have to wait for personnel at other departments to become available to view them. Now we’re the department to come to for assistance.” The chief also asked that any business that has video surveillance capability that has not been approached by the WFPD contact the department and provide officers with a copy of their surveillance recording devices so that they can make certain the two systems are compatible.