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ACPD gets $12.9K tech grant
Published 12:55pm Wednesday, August 15, 2012The Alexander City Police Department is one of a select few law enforcement agencies in the Middle District of Alabama to receive grant funding from the U.S. Department of Justice.
ACPD received $12,905 in grant money to purchase shotgun racks, flashlight kits, wearable cameras, a rifle with accessories and to improve technology and data management.
“Grants are becoming harder and harder to come by, and we are always grateful when we can get a grant,” said ACPD Chief Charles Rafford. “It allows us to improve our equipment, our technology and our training, and it saves the citizens form having to bear that cost.”
The grant was part of $5,150,726 that was awarded to Alabama agencies in cities in the Middle District of Alabama that was announced by George Beck Jr., United States Attorney for the Middle District.
Auburn, Montgomery, Phenix City and Tuskegee and the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center also received grant funding. The Alabama Department of
Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) Law Enforcement and Traffic Safety Division received $3,365,270, the largest grant awarded. The Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences was awarded $1,116,829 to update equipment used to process DNA samples.
“We receive grant funding from ADECA for some of our traffic initiatives,” Rafford said. “We also receive benefits from the Department of Forensic Sciences. We have made four cases in the last year based on DNA evidence that has been returned to us from forensic sciences. (These two departments) receiving grants in order to keep them operating benefits us tremendously.”
Rafford said the process to receive these grants was rigorous.
“Some people think you just write a letter asking for money, but the grant process requires usually anywhere from a dozen to three dozen forms,” Rafford said. “You have to fill out information about your budget, what your needs are and how you are going to address those needs with the money. It’s not just a rubber stamp process.”
