With high-definition security surveillance cameras, it is going to be much easier for Davis County, Utah, to tell the good guys from the bad guys. Although county officials assure they will not be using the upgraded surveillance equipment to spy on others, but rather, to protect county properties from acts of vandalism and to prevent fraudulent claims being made against the county.

The Davis County Commission this week approved a series of new contracts with Stanley Convergent Security Solutions in making certain county properties are protected with the best camera equipment available when it comes to surveillance. The contracts, marked confidential to avoid disclosing the exact placement of the cameras, totaled $38,000 in labor, installation, and equipment, for four locations, County Director of Information Services Mark Langston said.

The cameras will be installed at the Legacy Events Center in west Farmington, the County Memorial Courthouse in downtown Farmington, and at the two county-owned and operated golf courses, Davis Park in Kaysville and Valley View in Layton. “It’s not to spy,” Langston said. But the footage taken will serve as police evidence in the event a crime against the county does occur, he said.

The Layton course this summer was the site of two acts of vandalism resulting in more than $10,000 in damage to the green of the nationally recognized 18-hole public course. “We’re just upgrading,” Langston said of the county now in the process of replacing its old analog cameras with new digital cameras. […]