U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse stopped by the Summit County Emergency Operations Center earlier this week to announce $472,000 in federal funding for a project aimed at combating human and drug trafficking on Interstate 70.

The project, which is a partnership between Summit County 911 and the Summit County Sheriff’s Office, was one of 14 projects in Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District, represented by Neguse, to receive community project funding through the House Appropriations Committee.

“It’s a great project,” Neguse told Summit County Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons at the news conference on Wednesday, April 24. “So I’m glad to give you some help.”

Under guidelines issued by the House Appropriations Committee, each representative may request up to 15 projects in their community for fiscal year 2024, though only a handful may actually be funded, according to a news release from Neguse’s office.

FitzSimons said that the funds will go toward installing 30 new flock cameras, a type of camera that can read license plates, throughout the county. He said the cameras will, “bring us into modern policing.”

The Summit County Sheriff’s Office works with Colorado State Patrol and federal law enforcement partners to triangulate drug trafficking, FitzSimons said. Federal and state law enforcement will provide intelligence about suspected drug or human trafficking activity along Interstate 70 to local law enforcement during joint operations, he said.

“They’re following the trafficking either going from the East Coast west or West going east,” FitzSimons said. “And, either we’re chasing narcotics or we’re chasing money or people.”

The county’s 911 Center Director, Michael Berry, said the funds would also go to support radio communication upgrades “to make sure when and if something happens, everybody can talk about it and get information back and forth from the dispatch center to field staff.”