The Plant City Police Department will be receiving the equipment thanks to a $12,000 grant.
Each year, the Plant City Police Department applies for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program. The funding the department receives is based on a city’s crime rate, the population of the city and how many agencies apply for the grant.
This year, the Plant City Police Department received $12,759 from the grant program, an increase of about $1,100 from the previous year. Local governments are not required to match the grant amount.
The Plant City Police Department will use the money from the grant for the purchase of software and guns racks for its patrol cars.
The City Commission approved the usages at its Monday, June 27, meeting.
The software is part of an automated system for managing evidence. The software will make evidence check-in and check-out more efficient. The software is an add-on to the existing evidence system. The purchase will buy scanners, printers and labels for the department.
“This will be an asset to the department,” Information Services Division Capt. Jerry Stwan said.
The software program costs about $1,750, and the barcode industrial portable data terminal that matches the program costs $1,215 . The barcode printer, printer ribbon and barcode labels together cost about $1,225. Project management and a half-day of training for the program will cost $1,040. Additional costs for the new software include one year of annual maintenance and one year of upgrades, totaled together at $320.
The remaining funds were approved by the Commission to be used for 27 new secure dual gun racks, which will be installed in the department’s patrol cars. Currently, patrol rifles are stored in the trunks of patrol cars. The gun racks would allow officers to have quicker access to the guns, which was deemed a necessity in cases of terrorism and active shooter situations. Having the gun racks behind the driver’s seat of the car enables the officers to have both a shotgun and a patrol rifle in their immediate vicinity.
At about $267 each, the total cost for the gun racks is about $7,209.
“They can be retrieved in seconds,” Stwan said.
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com.
