Fresno, Clovis and other Valley law enforcement get federal funds

By Paula Lloyd and Lewis Griswold / The Fresno Bee

Valley police agencies won millions of dollars in federal grants Tuesday to hire — or at least keep — scores of officers.

The money comes from the U.S. Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Services program. Nationwide, $1 billion in “COPS” money is being handed out. California’s share is more than $211 million.

The grants are for three years, and agencies are required to cover the fourth year of funding.

The money is particularly welcome at a time when police and sheriff’s departments, faced with tightened budgets, are cutting jobs through early retirements or layoffs.

The Fresno Police Department will receive $10.2 million, the largest amount among 12 Valley agencies receiving grants. In addition to keeping 15 officers from being laid off, the department will be able to add 26 officers, Chief Jerry Dyer said. The department has received other grants through the federal community policing program, but being allowed to use federal funds to save jobs is a new twist, Dyer said.

Police aid a ‘blessing’ – for those who get it

“This is the first time I’m aware of that the federal government has allowed this to happen, to keep officers on the books,” he said. “This money allows for the retention of experienced officers.”

The city of Fresno hopes that the economy will turn around in four years and that revenues will be available through the city’s general fund, city spokesman Randy Reed said.

The federal program has awarded $12.4 billion in community policing grants since it began in 1994.

Dyer said the department also will be able to use grant funds to hire recent graduates of the department’s academy at Fresno City College.

Other Valley law enforcement agencies receiving federal community policing grants are the police departments in Clovis, Dinuba, Farmersville, Huron, Lindsay, Parlier, Sanger, Selma, Woodlake and Tulare, and the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department.

Absent from the grants list are the Fresno and Madera county sheriff’s departments and the Visalia Police Department.

Madera sheriff’s spokeswoman Erica Stuart said the department did not apply for a grant. Neither did Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims, who said she was unwilling to accept the fourth-year funding requirement.

“We are still waiting to hear from another stimulus grant … that pays for all costs, salaries, cars, equipment with no match,” Mims said.

The funding hurdle of that fourth year is why the Visalia City Council several months ago decided against authorizing the Visalia Police Department to apply for the community policing grants in the first place, said Assistant Chief Colleen Mestas. “It’s too risky once you look at it, because we don’t know what’s going to happen in three years,” Mestas said.

Finding the money for the fourth year does pose a problem, said Tulare County Sheriff Bill Wittman. The Tulare County Sheriff’s Department got the Valley’s second-highest federal grant — $3.1 million — and will hire 12 deputies.

The county will need to find about $1 million to pay for the program’s fourth year, he said. “We’re going to start working on that right away,” Wittman said.

Wittman said his department has been under a hiring freeze since September. The 12 deputies will be assigned as community officers in small towns, and also will be trained in developing community-based anti-gang youth programs, he said.

“I’m really excited about putting officers back in these communities,” Wittman said. “I get calls continually wanting to know where the community officers are.”

The new hiring will begin right away, and some deputies will be in the field within a month, he said.

The Tulare Police Department, which won a grant of just less than $1.18 million that will pay for four officers, already has plans for the fourth year of funding: The city’s half-cent sales tax should cover the costs of keeping three officers, and the city’s general fund will cover the fourth, police Capt. Tom Munoz said.

The new officers are filling vacancies and will be on the force within three months, he said. The four new officers will be assigned to patrol, allowing other officers to transfer to the department’s community policing division, he said.

The Clovis Police Department will hire five officers with its $1.5 million federal grant. That’s far below the $4.2 million the city of Clovis applied for, which would have funded 14 officers, said Calli Biaggi, Clovis police spokeswoman. “But we’re happy to get anything. Anything helps right now.”