ETNA, Ohio — Almost two months after Trustee President Rozland McKee was caught covering up cameras believing they were recording audio, the company investigating the incident has some answers.
“In this case it’s my belief that the audio was turned off,” a representative from WhereWolfe Intelligence told the Etna Township trustees, Tuesday night.
The WhereWolfe representative says whereas the surveillance system does have the ability to turn the audio on, he doesn’t believe that was the case when Board President Rozland McKee covered them up, last month. However, he could not conclude that for all 12 cameras because he was locked out of certain clips.
Trustee Mark Evans saved those clips to his phone before the surveillance system was removed by McKee on Oct. 22, citing legal advice.
“It wasn’t a full report,” Evans said, Wednesday.
Evans points out WhereWolfe did not ask him to see the clips on his phone, nor did they pull the backup SD cards still in the cameras, themselves.
“Have those been looked at and retrieved,” Evans asked the WhereWolfe rep, Tuesday. “No, they have not,” the man replied.
WhereWolfe says that’s because of “cost control.” After the matter was agreed upon to be sent to the Licking County Prosecutor, the board then approved another company, State Security, to look into the matter with a price tag of $920.
The representative said digital forensics showed Evans had accessed the surveillance system for 21 minutes on Oct. 15, six minutes on Oct. 17 and 83 minutes on Oct. 19, which was the same day McKee was seen covering the cameras.
Evans says he was, in fact, in the system claiming to be setting the system up, which was installed in early October.
“Should Etna Township citizens be concerned with how things are happening here and what should be happening out there – things aren’t getting done,” 10TV’s Bryant Somerville asked Evans.
“Very much so,” Evans said.
He says the township should be focusing on development, equipment needs for the road department, unpaid bills and union negotiations. Many of which, he says, haven’t been brought up for discussion in months.
“Not only are our residents suffering, but also our employees cause it makes their job harder,” he said.
In an email to 10TV Board President Rozland McKee says, in part, “I want to be clear we have been transparent. I will not allow anyone to use our security cameras to spy on anyone in our township. I stand by this as a trustee.”