Exh 8DAGENDA ITEi11 #SD
NIAY 23, 2005
STAFF REPORT
City of Atlantic Beach
Commission Meeting
AGENDA ITEM: Justice Assistance Grant II
DATE: May 12, 2005
SUBMITTED BY: David E. Thompson, Chief of Police/DPS
BACKGROUND:
Justice Assistance Grants (JAGs) are new grants that were established by the Federal
Government this year. Some of the previous criminal justice grants were eliminated, and
some were simply combined into the new JAG grant program. The federal government
provides the funding, and the allocations are handed down to the states. The state
governments then pass the funding down to the counties.
In the first round of JAGs in northeast Florida, Atlantic Beach was approved for $73,000
for salaries for Crime Suppression Officers in the 2005-06 fiscal year. There is no match
required for this funding, and it will be included in the 2005-06 fiscal budget.
In the second round of JAG funding, the Police Department applied for $65,000 in grant
funding to purchase and implement a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system in the
Department of Public Safety. As of May 9, 2005, the request has been approved at the
local level.
The next step of the process for the JAG II grant is for the Police Department to apply for
the funding online, and to submit hazd copies of the application with original signatures.
For this process, the City needs to authorize the Mayor to sign the related paperwork, and
the city needs to authorize David E. Thompson to submit the application on line and have
the authorization to electronically sign the on line application on behalf of the Mayor and
the City.
Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD):
' ' Currently, information that is collected at the public safety communication center is
Iazgely done by hand. When someone calls in, the Emergency Communications Operator
(ECO) fills out paper cards by hand. This record is completed, and then it is reviewed
' and filed by hand.
As a result, searching and compiling information for public records requests or for crime
analysis is a long, manpower intensive process. Over the course of a single year, there
may be more than 23,000 cards. Whenever questions arise relative to response times or
crime information, the cards must be searched by hand. With a CAD system, the data
' bases are easily searched for statistical information.
AGENDA ITEM #3D
NIr1Y 23, ZUUS
An additional problem with the manual system is that previously captured information on
an address is not available before an officer is sent to the scene. The officer maybe
unaware of prior calls to that location, including any history of violence or danger. There
is no information relative to hazardous materials that may be present on the scene. CAD
searches the data bases for this information before an officer is sent to a scene.
Manual systems also result in redundancy. The ECO writes down information, and then
the patrol officer asks for the information so that s/he can put it into a report. This means
that several people are actually capturing and writing down that same information. With
a CAD system, the information entered by the ECO is automatically entered in the
reporting system. When a patrol officer begins the report, all of the preliminary
information from the ECO is already entered.
BUDGET: $65,000 in Grant Funding to be included in the 2005-06 budget.
RECOMMENDATIONS: To authorize the Mayor to sign the related paperwork for
the application and the subsequent paperwork related to the JAG II, and;
To authorize David E. Thompson to submit the application on line and have the
authorization to electronically sign the on line application on behalf of the Mayor and the
City.
ATTACHMENTS: None
REVIEWED BY CITY MANAGE
ITEM NUMBER: