The city has learned it will receive $34,217 from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program, which will provide the tasers — or electroshock weapons — as well as officers’ overtime pay for drug investigations.
When they applied for the grant earlier this year, police officials said that $16,000 of the $34,217 was targeted for the narcotics overtime costs.
The JAG program, which operates under the U.S. Department of Justice, is the main provider of federal law enforcement funding to state and local agencies. This year, $2 billion was allocated to the program from the stimulus package spearheaded by President Obama.
During a meeting Thursday night, the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners is scheduled to approve a project ordinance that will allow the funds to be spent for their intended purposes.
Tasers, which deliver a jolt of electricity through a pair of wires propelled by compressed air, have been linked to deaths in some jurisdictions. But local Police Chief Roger McCreary says he has researched the devices and is comfortable incorporating them into his department.
It could not be determined Monday when the department will begin using the tasers.
Police believe they would play a role in cases in which firearms would be used otherwise, such as in a confrontation with an armed suspect when there is a need to readily eliminate the threat.
Though police also are equipped with pepper spray, mainly used to subdue unruly individuals, that option might not prevent shots from being fired in a standoff or similar situation.
In 2007, a taser from the Dobson Police Department was employed to successfully immobilize a knife-wielding man in a Mount Airy public-housing neighborhood.
No citizens expressed opposition to the tasers’ addition during an April 2 commissioners meeting when the public was given a chance to comment on the plan.
However, Commissioner Dean Brown said he had received questions from constituents wondering if the municipality would be covered if any potential liability issues arose from the use of the devices. Brown was given assurance that the city would not opening itself to risks.
Drug Investigations
The money targeted toward the overtime pay for narcotics cases will allow the Mount Airy Police Department to regain a funding source for such investigations which it had lost last year.
In 2007, Mount Airy obtained $9,367 through the same grant program to defray the cost of drug probes. They often involve time-consuming, protracted investigations that require extra manpower and resources not readily available through normal channels.
No money was received in 2008 due to congressional budget cuts, but the stimulus plan apparently has allowed the overtime funding to be restored.
A portion of the $34,217 grant will go toward administrative costs associated with the program.
The Mount Airy Police Department also is seeking $500,312 in additional grant assistance through the federal “COPS” program, which involves stimulus money as well. That grant would pay the entry-level salaries of four police officers for three years, which represent existing positions that are now unfilled.
Officials expect to learn the fate of the COPS request in September.
Contact Tom Joyce at tjoyce@mtairynews.com or at 719-1924.
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