Mount Airy police plan to seek more than $500,000 in stimulus funds to cover personnel costs — including a middle school resource officer — and new equipment such as tasers.

North Carolina is receiving $56.3 million through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, with $33.8 million to go to the state and the remaining $22.5 million designated for localities based on a formula reflecting population and violent-crime statistics.

The Mount Airy Police Department is busy trying to obtain its share of the money, which can be used for such needs as hiring and supporting new officers, crime-prevention programs and drug task forces.

Police Chief Roger McCreary said that with city finances strained by a tight economy, the federal funding could provide some officers and projects that might not be affordable otherwise. “The budget, the way it is, if we don’t take advantage of the stimulus programs, we’d be foolish,” McCreary said Monday.

At the same time, using the stimulus money for such needs will “take a load off local taxpayers’ backs,” the police chief added.

Personnel Funding

The biggest chunk of money sought by the local agency — $500,000 — is through the federal COPS program, which enables the hiring and rehiring of additional officers.

McCreary said that this would not involve new positions in Mount Airy, but the filling of ones that have been left vacant due to a hiring freeze or otherwise not funded through the local budget.

Of the four positions being applied for, one would be designated as a resource officer for Mount Airy Middle School, which lost its SRO in December due to funding cuts mandated by the state government.

“It’s important for me to get that SRO back in the middle school,” the police chief said.

The $500,000 would cover 100 percent of the salaries of the officers, in addition to the costs of benefit packages and outfitting them, for a three-year period. “The only restriction is the local government has to continue it for one additional 12-month period,” McCreary said of the grant program.

Apart from the COPS funding, city police will be seeking more than $30,000 for various uses which is available through the Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program of the U.S. Department of Justice. The local agency also is vying for stimulus money being channeled through the N.C. Governor’s Crime Commission.

Money For Tasers

As part of a two-part grant program available from the Governor’s Crime Commission, Mount Airy police will be seeking funds for tasers as well as funding to cover overtime for officers to conduct narcotics investigations.

A similar drug-enforcement program was a victim of federal budget cuts in 2007, and the new application would allow it to be restored. McCreary said the effort proved successful in helping to address the local drug problem in the past and is viewed as a vital tool for continuing the battle.

McCreary said the tasers would provide another layer of safety for officers, though use of those devices has generated controversy in some areas. For example, a 17-year-old boy in Martinsville, Va., died in January after an officer there used a taser on him. In the past week, a community group unsuccessfully lobbied the Martinsville Police Department to discontinue taser use.

Tasers are hand-held weapons that deliver a jolt of electricity through a pair of wires propelled by compressed air.

The local police chief said he would be comfortable adding them to his department. “We’ve done a lot of research to find the pros and cons about the tasers,” he said.

No dollar amounts have been identified for the potential Governor’s Crime Commission assistance. “We don’t really know how much we’ll be getting from them,” the police chief said.

Radios, Canine

Other local needs eyed for federal stimulus program funding include upgraded radio communications and a police dog for the department. “We have a need for a replacement of a canine,” the chief said.

New, stronger equipment being sought would address problems with “dead spots” caused by the hills and hollows of the local topography, allowing city police to communicate with members of all other emergency agencies. “You can’t do that right now,” McCreary said.

Using 800-megahertz radios alleviates that problem. “We actually received some radios just the other day,” said McCreary, explaining that they resulted from a grant obtained by the county government.

“Those radios are expensive, and about the only way we can get them is through grant funding,” he said.

Application Deadline

Mount Airy police are scrambling to prepare all the necessary paperwork in time to meet multiple deadlines in April set by the various funding sources. “It’s a lot of work to prepare,” McCreary said, citing a meticulous process required of applicants. “You have to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s.

“We have some deadlines to meet that ought to be interesting.”

It is not known for sure if successful applications will allow the funding to be incorporated into the municipality’s budget for the next fiscal year, which begins on July 1. While McCreary is uncertain if it will be, he pointed to the intent of the stimulus package in trying to inject funding into localities as soon as possible.

“They’re really pushing to get this money out there.”

As part of the application procedure, the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners will be asked to authorize the COPS grant application at a meeting Thursday night.

“We want their backing,” McCreary said.

The Mount Airy Police Department also is welcoming public input concerning uses of the federal stimulus funding for local law enforcement. Those with a suggestion can contact McCreary at 786-3535.

He said that citizens shouldn’t view the stimulus package as a “Christmas present” from Uncle Sam to supply a lot of extras for local police. On the other hand, it’s a chance to recover items that have been lost, according to McCreary.

“It would get us back to where we would have been without this budget crunch,” he said.

Contact Tom Joyce at tjoyce@mtairynews.com or at 719-1924.