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 City of Hermosa Beach --- 09-12-00
CITIZENS OPTIONS FOR PUBLIC
SAFETY (COPS)
RECOMMENDATION
BACKGROUND The Citizens Options for Public Safety (COPS) Program, titled State Assembly Bill No. 2885 was signed into law by Governor Davis on July 6, 2000. The COPS Program has provided supplemental funding for cities and counties and local law enforcement services in order to enhance public safety. The continued COPS Program increased the funding level to $121.3 million. Local agencies will receive $96.3 million for front-line law enforcement purposes and each agency is guaranteed to receive a grant of at least $100,000. The COPS Program extension will expire on January 1, 2005. Small cities, like Hermosa Beach in particular, should benefit from this increased funding. Under the new COPS Program, funding each city is now guaranteed $100,000 for at least the next four years. Since funds for two new officer positions is already provided in the 2000-01 Budget, the additional funds will be used for equipment to support front- line police personnel. In addition to the COPS Program, there is also an additional $75 million provided for the California Law Enforcement Equipment Program (CLEEP), which will ensure funding for law enforcement equipment. The one-time allocation is $100,000 per police agency. The program was structured to ensure that all of California's police agencies would be able to modernize their front-line police operations. This allocation is particularly important because 62% of the police agencies have fewer than 20 sworn police officers.
ANALYSIS Existing law establishes in each county treasury a Supplemental Law Enforcement Services Fund (SLESF) and requires that monies from this fund be allocated to counties and cities located within a county in accordance with specified requirements for, among other things, front-line law enforcement services. The COPS Bill requires that the allocation for the city police chiefs would require that the funds be expended no later than June 30 of the following fiscal year. The Bill also requires a written, public report to be filed with the Supplemental Law Enforcement Oversight Committee (SLEOC) at least 30 days prior to the date of the duly noticed public hearing held in September in each year for the purpose of considering requests for the money from the fund. The monies would go towards the purchase of front-line police equipment. It is police management's intent to use the residual monies from both funding sources listed, the COPS Fund and CLEEP Fund, to purchase MDT (mobile digital terminal)) computers in the patrol vehicles. This purchase would be in addition to already existing COPS Program Fund expenditures requested in this year's budget totaling $43,075. The Mobile Digital Computer System in the patrol vehicles is for data communication applications including call dispatching, messaging, inquiries on vehicles and persons. The Mobile Data Computer System will be provided by the City of West Covina Service Group, our current software provider for our Records Management System and Computer Aided Dispatch for the Public Safety Communications Center in the City of El Segundo. The estimated cost for the system including hardware, software and necessary integration fee is $156,054. This figure includes the ongoing annual software maintenance fee ($5,000) and annual telephone line access fees ($9,468). This recommended purchase for a Mobile Digital Computer System with grant funds provides Hermosa Beach with a fully integrated dispatch system from the citizen caller to police dispatching, to digital call display in the police officer's vehicle.
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