LIMA, OH (WLIO) - Lima Mayor Sharetta Smith is back from Washington and eager to use what she learned at the United States Conference of Mayors.
The mayor says she saw that cities across the country are facing the same issues but just on a different scale. For example, the struggle to hire police officers. The City of Lima needs ten officers and the city of Cleveland needs 200 officers. She says that mayors all across the country are looking at different ways of policing to operate in this difficult climate. Many looking at how to use technology as a force multiplier.
"We just announced recently that we're going to have the "FLOCK" system which is the security cameras with license plate readers at the entrance of the city. We've implemented body cameras 3 or 4 years ago. But what's next that we can use for technology as a force multiplier particularly while we're in this period where recruiting law enforcement officers is quite difficult," said Mayor Sharetta Smith, City of Lima.
Smith says they also went in-depth with mental health issues in the workplace and how it affects aspects of city government. One solution they discussed was working with local universities and getting social work students to do their hands-on training in the community to provide needed services for those struggling with mental health disorders.
