Police: Give Us A Grant For School Safety


Don’t you just like it when people other than the school administrators ask the government for help when it comes to school safety?  Well this is exactly what the police department over at Fayetteville in Arkansas is doing.  In an attempt to improve school safety measures in their area, the police department has applied for a federal grant, the approval of which they are awaiting presently.

The police department of Fayetteville is working with the school district and both are eagerly waiting for the approval of the grant.  So what are the exact plans?  Why have they applied for the grant?  A report published by the North Arkansas Times states that the grant will allow them to:

Furnish schools with surveillance equipment capable of being viewed by 911 dispatch operators. Additionally, the funding would equip school resource officers with new software, giving police an internal view of the school building.

“Let’s say there’s an incident inside the school,” Tabor said. “The officers with the new software would be able to see diagrams within the building and know which room they need to go to.”

“The City Council approved us applying for it and the money coming out of the fund balance about two months ago,” Tabor said. “If the grant gets approved, then we’ll have to go before the City Council again.”

This grant is part of a bigger program called Secure Our Schools grant program.  It is sponsored by the Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing division.  It is a pretty well funded program, with about $13 million available to interested law enforcement agencies.  Of course, one main requirement is that the law enforcement agency requesting the grant should use the money to improve security and safety in schools.

More on the Secure Our Schools program from the Department of Justice web site:

This program will fund up to 50% of the total cost to implement one or more of the following options: placement and use of metal detectors, locks, lighting, and other deterrent measures; security assessments; security training of personnel and students; coordination with local law enforcement; and/or any other measure that may provide a significant improvement in security.

The application period has ended and I am quite embarrassed to have discovered this program only now.  It’s a good thing that I am not part of a law enforcement agency that can benefit from this grant, then!

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