WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Hundreds of thousands of dollars are being requested to improve sound quality at the Sedgwick County Juvenile Intake and Assessment Center.

According to in-house architects and engineers, the building is covered in tile, which makes it hard for cameras to record clear audio.

“The acoustics in the building simply wash out the sound,” said Assistant County Manager of Public Safety Rusty Leed. “Alterations to the existing tiles and a lot of portions of the building where they’ve been painted over has diminished the acoustic characteristics of the original tiles.”

The money would be used to replace the tiles, install audio recording, add more cameras, add storage, pay for labor, and everything else in between.

“Some of those costs include adding cameras to the JIAC holding rooms. That was part of the Community Task Force Recommendation, and those cameras would also have audio as well and also adding audio to the JIAC intake area,” said Deputy Director for Juveniles Mario Salinas.

City expected to give CAC $2 million for expansion projects

This comes after the Cedric Lofton Community Task Force Recommendations as well as recommendations by the District Attorney.

“Policies are created when things happen, and you try to get better, ’cause you don’t ever wanna sat in the chair and do and say ‘Gosh, we knew that was a problem, and we didn’t do anything about it.’ And you don’t wanna repeat a mistake over and over,” said County Manager Tom Stolz.

According to Leed, a quality audio recording system would help protect everyone.

“By having that audio, you protect the kids, kids from kids, kids from adults, you protect adults from kids, allegations of misconduct, sexual harassment, those types of things,” he said.

Some commissioners argue the price to do all of this is too high.

“In some cases, it might solve some confusion to investigate a case, but it’s a quarter million dollars we’re going to have to spend, and it’s not just one time. It’s going to be another quarter million dollars down the road that you have to replace some stuff,” said District 5 Sedgwick County Commissioner Jim Howell.

If commissioners sign off on the idea Wednesday, the county will ask companies for bids on the project.

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