BISBEE — With the Cochise County Jail’s video surveillance system crashing, Detention Commander Rodney Leon, Lt. Ariel Monge and Chief Deputy Rod Rothrock brought a $140,000 proposition before the county Board of Supervisors during a work session Monday.

Leon said the jail has been experiencing monitor blackouts, camera burn-outs and have lost some ability to record incidents that happen within the jail.

Over the years, the surveillance system has turned into a collage of systems all tied together. Rooms of cables that are nearly too crowded to even walk through have caused even further difficulty, because repair contractors have refused to work on the existing equipment, he added.

“Throughout the years, we have utilized a variety of contractors to provide new surveillance equipment and service of our existing equipment,” Leon said. “Pre-Ventronics and Johnson Controls have been the main providers of this type of work. However, it is becoming difficult to get contractors to service our equipment due to them not being familiar with the work performed by other contractors.”

The new equipment they asked the supervisors to approve at an upcoming meeting comes from Pre-Ventronics at a cost of $140,826. The project was put out for bid, and Pre-Ventronics was awarded the contract. Funding for the new system will come from the jail enhancement fund, not the general fund.

Leon explained that the state provides funding through fines, and that money goes into the jail enhancement fund. It is very prohibitive in what money from the fund can be used for. However, it can be used for such equipment.

The matter came before the board on a previous meeting’s consent agenda, and the supervisors were uncomfortable approving it without some details.

The request did not come through the budget process, but Leon was unaware that such expenditures needed to pass through a formal process.

The supervisors tabled the request until the questions of funding sources and bypassing the budget process could be answered.

The project’s scope includes the upgrade of the entire surveillance control system including monitors, keyboards, cables and cameras.

Some of the working gear may be able to be re-used as backup equipment; other pieces may be offered for auction with the money going back into the jail enhancement fund.