INS installs high-tech equipment in Woodbury County

The U-S Immigration and Naturalization Service is paying to install video teleconferencing equipment in the Woodbury County Law Enforcement Center. Woodbury County Sheriff’s Department project coordinator, Jeff Harcum, says the high-tech equipment will speed up the process of interviewing inmates.Prisoners now have to wait seven to nine days in jail for an I-N-S agent to arrive from Chicago to interview them. Harcum says the equipment gives the I-N-S instant access to prisoners.Harcum says the equipment could eventually speed up other court processes as it could link judges to the center for other court cases in the county. Harcum says they could also link the equipment to the Iowa Communications Network so officers could use it for training seminars and classes. The I-N-S is paying 62-thousand-500 dollars for the new teleconferencing system.