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Community Oriented Policing Services Hiring Recovery GrantMasterpiece on the Mississippi TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager SUBJECT: COPS Grant Application DATE: May 28, 2010 Chief of Police Mark Dalsing is recommending City Council approval to submit a Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Recovery Grant for the purpose of obtaining grant funding for four police officer positions. Currently, the police department is in the third year of a five -year sworn officer hiring plan. The plan includes the hiring of 15 additional police officers. Of the 15 officers, 12 of the 15 positions have received designated funding. Through the availability of the COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP), the funding opportunity exists to complete the 15 officer hiring plan in FY2011. The last three positions from the plan would be funded through the CHRP and will be for two patrol officers and a school resource officer. Due to the availability of the CHRP funding, coupled with the expansion of the City's Multicultural Center project, Chief Mark Dalsing recommends consideration for a 16th officer to be added through the grant funding for a Community Policing Outreach Corporal. The Community Outreach Corporal would be staffed by a Police Corporal assigned to the Community Policing Unit, with an office located in the City's Multicultural Center. This position would establish an outreach program with area colleges, provide intervention and prevention services with emphasis toward minority students, and act as an information source for crime victims and their families. The grant funding would pay 100% of entry level salary and benefits over three years. The City would incur $26,758 in costs over this three -year period. The City would be required to retain the positions for at least one additional year. I concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council approval. MCVM:jh Michael C. Van Milligen Dubuque bfrd AI- America city 111111 2007 Attachment cc: Barry Lindahl, City Attorney Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager Mark Dalsing, Chief of Police Masterpiece on the Mississippi TO: Michael C. Van Milligen City Manger FR: Mark M. Dalsi �n Chief of Police RE: COPS Grant Application INTRODUCTION MEMORANDUM May 27, 2010 The purpose of this memorandum is to seek City Council consideration to submit a Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Recovery Grant for the purpose of obtaining grant funding for four police officer positions by the grant due date of June 16, 2010. BACKGROUND The COPS Hiring Recovery Program is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) and directly provides funding to law enforcement agencies to hire and /or rehire career law enforcement officers in an effort to create and preserve jobs, and to increase their community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts. The COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP) grant provides funding to state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies and other public and private entities to hire and train community policing professionals, acquire and deploy cutting -edge crime - fighting technologies, and develop and test innovative policing strategies. CHRP grants cover 100 percent of the approved entry-level salary and benefits of each newly hired and /or rehired, full -time sworn career law enforcement officer over three years. There is no local match or cap on the amount of funding that can be requested, but CHRP grant funding will be based upon the agency's current entry-level salary and fringe benefits for full -time sworn officers. Any additional costs higher than entry-level salaries and fringe benefits will be the responsibility of the agency. CHRP grantees are required to retain all full -time officer positions awarded for at least 12 months from the time the 36 months of grant funding for each CHRP position expires. The Dubuque Police Department did not receive CHRP funding when we applied in April of 2009. However, the CHRP has had additional funds allocated to the program 2 Patrol 1 Patrol 1 Patrol 1 Patrol 5 1 Patrol /Annex 1 Patrol /Annex 2 Patrol /Annex 1 Patrol /Annex 1 SRO 5 1 Traffic/ COP Unit 2 Traffic/ COP Unit 3 1 Section 8 Invest. /Housing 2 5 4 3 2 1 15 and only those agencies which applied for the funds in 2009 are eligible for the funds in this round, making the Dubuque Police Department one of the agencies eligible for the funds. With short notice and turnaround time, we are being asked to resubmit our application with updated costs. With council approval, we will submit our application using the same plan as the 2009 application with cost updates and as described below. DISCUSSION Currently, the police department is in the third year of a five -year sworn officer hiring plan. The plan includes the hiring of 15 additional police officers. Of the 15 officers, 12 of the 15 positions have received designated funding. Through the availability of the COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP), the funding opportunity exists to complete the 15 officer hiring plan in FY2011. The last three positions from the plan would be funded through the CHRP and will be for two patrol officers and a school resource officer as shown by the following table. FY2008 FY2009 FY2010 FY2011 FY2012 TOTAL Due to the availability of the CHRP funding coupled with the expansion of the City's Multicultural Center project, we would propose consideration for a 16 officer to be added through the grant funding for a Community Policing Outreach Corporal. The Community Outreach Corporal is staffed by a Police Corporal assigned to the Community Policing Unit, with an office located in the City's Multicultural Center. This position would establish an outreach program with area colleges and provide intervention and prevention services with emphasis toward minority students. The Community Policing Outreach Corporal assists the minority population with communication and resources; also acts as an information resource for crime victims and their families; including but not limited to, working with families in cases of homicides, fatalities or domestic violence, and /or as a victim advocate working with the Police Department providing support and explanation of court and legal proceedings. The addition of this position allows the city of provide direct citizen services and assistance to victims of violent crimes, and assist diverse populations within the city. Additionally, this position works closely with city personnel and the Police Department in the retention and recruitment of new police officers focusing primarily toward diverse students. The SRO position was originally planned for one of the first years of the hiring plan but has been shifted to the last year of the plan to accommodate budget shortfalls within the Dubuque Community School District (DCSD). Two of the current SRO positions are funded 50% by the City of Dubuque and 50% by the DCSD. The SRO corporal is funded entirely by the City. This fourth SRO position would be on the same 50/50 split with the DCSD. To date, the DCSD has been unable to confirm that funding for this position would be in place for the required continued 12 month period at the end of the grant. If the DCSD were unable to fund the position at that time, the City of Dubuque would have to fund the entire position and would therefore be able to choose whether the position remains assigned to the schools or is assigned elsewhere. Because CHRP only funds entry level salary and benefits, the cost difference between an entry level officer and a new corporal for the first year is $7,358, second year $9,557 and third year $9,843 for a total over the three year grant period of $26,758. With the Dubuque Community Multicultural Center as centerpiece to community outreach, the partnership with the police department enables full relational development of educational, social, and network capabilities and proactive outreach to the community. RECOMMENDATION: Through the availability of the COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP) grant, we recommend the submission of the 2009 COPS Hiring Recovery grant in the amount of $883,872 in support of four new police officer positions for the police department, three from the 15 officer, five -year staffing plan and one Multicultural Community Outreach Corporal. ACTION REQUESTED: Action requested is for City Council consideration to submit the COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP) grant by June 16, 2010 providing for the hiring of four new police officer positions for the City of Dubuque, three from the 15 officer, five -year sworn officer plan and one for the Multicultural Community Outreach Corporal.