TEXARKANA ARKANSAS POLICE DEPARMTENT

MONTHLY REPORT

JULY 2004

ROBERT H. HARRISON

CHIEF OF POLICE

Personnel

The Police Department currently has three positions open.  We have three commissioned police officer positions and one Docket Coordinator’s position frozen due to budget limitations. 

The following personnel actions occurred during this month:

Retirements:                          None

Resignations:                        Ptl. Johnny McBride

Hiring:                                    

Promotions:                           None

Terminations:                         None

Training

INDEX CRIME

Narcotics

OPERATIONS

Calls for Service

Budget

Grant Status

Expires 12/31/2004 This grant pays one half of purchase cost of bullet proof body armor for police officers.  National Institute of Justice Standards (BJA/NIJ) recommends that body armor be replaced every five years and the agency provides body armor for every officer and replaces according to NIJ replacement recommendations.

Expires 10/28/05 LLEBG block grants have been one of our longest running grants and have been very liberal in the areas grant funds could be spent on.  This grant pays the full salary and fringe for a civilian warrant/complaint officer and the salary for a part-time civilian fleet maintenance technician  The federal amount is $34,417 and the local match is $3,824.

:  10/28/07 This grant will pay the partial salary of our civilian warrant/complaint officer.  The grant has been submitted electronically and working through the approval process.  Our estimated federal amount is approximately $17,500 and the local match will be about $1,800.  This is a significant reduction from last year and we are hearing rumors the LLEBG block grants may be phased out or combined with another law enforcement grant.  The down side to this grant reduction is the police department will have to absorb the warrant/complaint officer position into our general budget in FY 2006.  LLEBG grants run for two years and overlap the prior year.

Expires 06/30/05 This grant pays the salaries for TAPD personnel in the Bi-State Narcotics Task Force.  This is a multil-jurisdicitional task force consisting of TAPD, TTPD and MSCO personnel.  This is our longest running grant project. It funds the salaries of five police officers.  The federal amount is $211,648 and local match is $91,232.  Our task force has been one of the more successful in the state and we do not anticipate any reduction in funding levels at the federal level.

Expires 09/30/04 This grant pays the full salary of a police investigator to investigate all cases involving violent crimes committed against women.  This year a police liaison position (case coordinator) was added.  The state amount is $74,814, and the local in-kind match is $24,938.

Expires 09/30/04 This grant pays overtime for DWI, speed, and occupant protection enforcement.  Federal amount is $44,000 with no local match.  We have submitted a request for an increase to $66,000 in FY 2005 starting on 10/01/2004 through 09/30/2005.  Local match is 50% in-kind using a salary off-set from one of the patrol officers assigned to the Special Operations Traffic Section as match.  This program started in 1991 and has been funded for approximately 13 years.

Expires 12/31/04 The THA’s share is $85,000.00 and the city picks up the balance needed for salary and fringe for two officers.  THA officers are primarily responsible for Texarkana Housing Authority property.  The approximate match is 75% federal and 25% local match.  The funds received from THA have been deposited into the regular salary line item to simplify our budget tracking.

Project Completion Date is TBA (Estimated 12/2005) The City of Texarkana Arkansas and County of Miller have received a $3.9 million dollar radio/communications grant to upgrade City/County radio communications equipment and infrastructure as part of the Arkansas Wireless Information Network over the next two years.  This will allow radio communication interoperability between police, fire, emergency medical, sheriff, public works, water department, and other first responders.  This is by far one of the most important grants the city has ever received.  The major benefit is it will allow the police department and fire department to purchase new radio equipment and upgrade infrastructure saving money that can be used for other capital projects.  Police radios have a service life of about 10 years and we are being mandated to move from analog to digital equipment to operate with other state agencies in Arkansas.  Upon completion of the project we anticipate not needing to buy or replace portable or mobile radios for until FY 2015.

Expires 03/31/2007 This three year grant funds two (2) police officers for assignment to TASD as School Resource Officers.  One SRO will be assigned to Arkansas High School and one at North Heights Junior High School.  The Texarkana Arkansas School District has agreed in principal to continue to fund the positions for an additional two budget cycles after the federal portion expires, which will in reality fund the two officers through o3/2009.