The Morgan Hill Police Department was not chosen to receive a
federal grant to hire more officers, probably because it does not
suffer from poverty and crime as much as other applicants.
The Morgan Hill Police Department was not chosen to receive a federal grant to hire more officers, probably because it does not suffer from poverty and crime as much as other applicants.
The city applied for funds from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services program in April. The nationwide program is funded by the federal stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama in March.
It provides $1 billion to 7,200 agencies across the country, solely to fund the salaries and benefits of police officer positions. The agencies were listed in an announcement by the DOJ this week.
Locally, the MHPD applied for up to $2.5 million from the grant, which would have paid for five full-time officers for three years, according to Cmdr. David Swing. Shortfalls of revenues into city coffers and the need for cuts to the police budget forced the department to eliminate three officer positions, which were vacant, earlier this year.
Morgan Hill has seen a growing number of violent and property-related crimes in the last couple of years, and Swing said more officers on patrol would improve the department’s ability to handle the growing workload.
However, the DOJ apparently determined that other communities, such as Gilroy, were more in need than Morgan Hill.
“Morgan Hill doesn’t have the crime rate and financial need as some of the other cities that applied,” Swing said. “As a police department, and as a city, and as an organization, we’re disappointed we didn’t receive the funding, but we’re going to continue to develop programs and funding to keep the city safe.”
Those programs include a city-run vehicle storage program, which was approved by the city council last month and is expected to be in full implementation by December. That program will allow the city to collect revenue from traffic offenders whose vehicles get impounded, and subsequently have to pay fees to recover them.
The program’s chief intent is to raise funds specifically to hire at least one more officer.
Swing also noted that this week’s DOJ announcement is not the final tally of COPS recipients. Morgan Hill could still receive funds if some cities decline the grant based on its strict requirements to maintain staffing levels – which translates to a no-layoff rule.
Since the financial picture has worsened since agencies applied for the grant, many cities may find the COPS requirements burdensome.
“Departments who thought a few extra officers might be nice may now find that they can’t afford to keep the ones they have, and therefore they can’t accept the grant,” Swing said.
The MHPD currently employs 36 sworn officers.
In California, 109 law enforcement agencies received COPS money to fund a total of 649 new officer positions.
The only agency in Santa Clara County to receive the grant is the Gilroy Police Department, who won $1.1 million in federal funds, according to Gilroy Sgt. Jim Gillio. That money will be used to pay for the salaries and benefits for three new officers for the next three years.
“The chief has the purview to assign these officers wherever they need to be to get the most bang for our buck,” Gillio said. “I can definitely see this money helping us attract officers transferring here (from another department) because they know their position will be secure, and hopefully at the end of the three years the economy will be up again.”
Chief Denise Turner, whose sworn force stands at 56, originally asked for $2.8 million to hire seven officers. She and her staff are now preparing a new scenario for the council to consider Sept. 14 because the federal funding expires after three years and the terms of the COPS grant require the city retain grant-funded officers for an additional year without federal cash.
The city of Gilroy has been embattled by a double-edged sword of growing violent, mostly gang-related crime, including a drive-by incident this week, and severe budget cuts that have affected the police department.
The city will not fill four officers’ positions this year. Two officers quit the force amid the council’s agonizing budget talks earlier this year, bringing the department down to 56 sworn officers, and two more will retire in the coming months. When the Gilroy Police Officer Association approved $1.1 million in cuts over the next year, they did so through furloughs and raise postponements, but they also agreed to not re-hire those four positions, a point Mayor Al Pinheiro stressed amid his praise.
“This is great news and a great opportunity for us, and I’m very happy, but let’s remember we’re asking for three more officers but we just let four go away,” Pinheiro said. “It’s important that we all understand why we’re in the position that we’re in.”
No sworn officers have been laid off this year, but across-the-board cuts at City Hall removed a Santa Clara County probation officer, a public records technician and one part-time and two full-time community service officers who dealt with graffiti, animal control and neighborhood issues. A previous hiring freeze also prevented Turner from hiring more officers, which a hired consultant recommended along with Turner herself.
Topping the list of California recipients were the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, the San Francisco Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department. Each received funding for 50 positions thanks to individual grants ranging between $12 million and $16 million.
The national government also looked at how police here respond to calls for service dispatchers pass on to them each year. Projected city revenues, the likelihood of future layoffs, local unemployment, poverty and foreclosure rates also factored in.
Local Economic indicators:
Family poverty rate ($25,790 or below for a family of five)
-9.8% – U.S.
-7.8% – Gilroy
-7.6% – Hollister
-5.3% – Morgan Hill
Source: 2005-07 U.S. Census Bureau estimates
Unemployment, Feb. ’09
-8.5% – U.S.
-14.7% – Gilroy
-17.6% – Hollister
-12.7% – Morgan Hill
Source: U.S. Department of Labor
Officers per 1,000 residents
-1.13 – Gilroy
-0.83 – Hollister
-0.95 – Morgan Hill
Sources: Gilroy, Morgan Hill and Hollister police departments; U.S. Census Bureau estimates
