Grant Proposal
Introduction
The chief of our department has been notified that we could be receiving a grant of $100,000 by a generous philanthropist in town. He has tasked our team to plan how, when, and where that money will be spent towards a worthy cause in the department. Our team has decided to invest $100,000 towards body cameras and body armor for the police department since such devices play a vital role in reducing complaints and misconducts of police officers. Throughout this proposal, it will explain the reason for our decision and will also go into further detail how we will distribute the grant.
New body armor and body cameras generate considerable cost savings since it simplifies complaints resolution processes in the court of law, especially for the police. Such cameras provide sufficient evidence thus leading to fair judgments. Ideally, numerous people claim that devices such as body cameras and new body armor have a civilizing effect, especially on law enforcement officers (Drover & Ariel, 2015). Such devices keep the officers on toes since they are aware that their actions are recorded. Therefore, the devices would significantly reduce the use of excessive force and it also reduces complaints against the officers. Notably, body-worn cameras and new body armor increased accountability, trust, and transparency in the police force (Drover & Ariel, 2015).
Basing on the recent research conducted by the Metropolitan Police, the law enforcement officers who used body cameras and new body armor behaved well when compared to their counterparts who did not (Drover & Ariel, 2015). Like all technologies, the use of body cameras and new body armor has numerous benefits in the deterrence of crime. Such devices can serve the community well if police can use them in the right manner. Body cameras and body armor can deliver meaningful transparency and accountability if deeper structural reforms are implemented in police force. Real community oversight also ensures that the police use the devices effectively and efficiently (Drover & Ariel, 2015). Therefore, it recommended for the police department to invest in body cameras and new body armors since it provides vital information to the police agencies. Body cameras provide compelling evidence that simplifies complaint resolution.
Body Camera Budget
Body cameras are beneficial to officers while on duty is it a third eye of what happens in unpredictable situations. Body cameras are etiquette for public safety and officer safety when dealing with the community on daily basis. Standard body cameras typically cost around 500 dollars per person. The police department has 40 sworn officers to be equipped with body cameras which will come out to 20,000. With body cameras the media feed that occurs on daily will have to be stored without getting deleted. Storage costs 125 dollars per camera which will be 5000. With this equipment would be beneficial to the department by reducing use of force claims. Officers knowing that they are being watched will be professional at all costs knowing that their every move is being captured. Officers will turn on the cameras when they are responding to a call and will not be able to turn off the camera until their call is finished. Having the media files stored at off site location means that officers could not access the media and delete files on accident or intentional. Officers will be able to have access to media files from a third party, but the third party will have the original copy stored at their facility. Having body cameras introduced to the department will sufficiently decreased complaints from the public and will start building an effective relationship with the public. Within a year arrest will decrease and citations will increase because of the body cameras and will benefit the department and the relationship with the community.
Body Armor Budget
Saving an officer’s life justifies making sure there is enough money for every police officer to have body armor available to them. After an analysis of policing shootings, within a four year period, statistics show that wearing body armor more than tripled the likelihood of the officer surviving a shooting to the torso. This means that body armor will be able to save at least eight officer’s lives a year. Even though there are department that do not use body armor, ours will not be one of those. The reason being that we value the lives of everyone within the department (“Providing Body Armor to All U.S. Police Officers Is worth the Cost,” 2010).
To provide officers with body armor it will cost $112 per officer (“Providing Body Armor to All U.S. Police Officers Is worth the Cost,” 2010). Within this department there are 40 officers. That means that it will cost the department $4,480. The department wants to make sure that they are known for being prepared and caring for the employees. So, we will make sure to have at least 20 extra body armor’s available. That way if one of the officers destroy theirs then they will have the ability to get another immediately. With that being stated, the total of the budget that will go to the body armor is $6720.
Each police officer’s armor will be housed in their locker. The extra ones will be housed in a storage room and documents have to be signed in order to get another one. If an officer did not destroy their vest during line of duty then they will have to pay $200 for the extra vest out of their check. The funds will allow for us to buy another vest and the extra funds left over will go to the “rainy day” account. Since, I had $25,000 to go towards the body armor budget, the funds not used will be placed in the “rainy day” account as well. The funds in the account will go towards repairs for the building and equipment within the department.
Training and Instructors Budget
A quarter of the grant will be spent towards training and providing instructors to provide adequate training. All officers will be fully trained on all features of the body camera and how to properly wear and take care of the new body armor. A mandatory 8-hour block of training will be provided by two training instructors. An officer will be waged at their overtime rate, which averages to $40 an hour. It will cost $320 for one officer to be trained so in order to train all 40 officers it will calculate to $12,800. Our Police Department will have two training instructors who will be appointed to teach the proper way of utilizing body-worn cameras and the new body armor. The Training Coordinators will be paid at a flat rate of $45 an hour to coordinate the training to all 40 officers. There will be a total of 4 classes that will consist of 10 officers per class. The estimated total cost to pay both instructors for 32 hours each will be $2,880. The total cost of training 40 officers and having two training instructors calculate to $15,680. It leaves us with $9,320 left of the $25,000 we want to spend on training and instructors. Since we have about $9,300 left over, we are going to save it and use it towards when new officers join our Police Department.
How many officers need to be trained & Special Teams
There is going to be 40 officers that will have to be trained. Each officer is going to cost $625.00 to properly training in the use of analyzing the camera’s that the department is going to spend some portion of this grant on for the police department. Out of the 625 dollars that will be allocated to each of these officers they will participate in the training for a period of four-weeks. Within the four- weeks of the training the police officers will learn how to analyze the cameras and the imaging that comes off them from police officers doing the traffic stop or just an encounter with the public. Computer programs will have to be used and other equipment that might make this job of being an analyzer for the police departments easier. In a four-week period it cost a us 156.25 to send this officer to this training program for them to specialize in this part of the job function. What will work to our advantage in this and having these officers trained to this area so well. They will be able to use this material to help other officers in the field either learn from mistakes or be able to present a different view that others can’t see in the film that comes from the camera’s. These officers will be at a special training facility, so they are paying for room and board also with the having to feed the officers during this difficult training period.
Reference
Drover, P., & Ariel, B. (2015). Leading an experiment in police body-worn video cameras. International Criminal Justice Review, 25(1), 80-97.
Providing Body Armor to All U.S. Police Officers Is Worth the Cost. (2010, August). RAND, (),
Retrieved from https://www.rand.org/news/press/2010/08/31.html
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