Federal grants to aid Sheriff's Office

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 5, 2001

NEW PORT RICHEY -- The Pasco County Sheriff's Office is set to receive $1.5-million in grants from the U.S. Department of Justice to pay for five new school resource officers and 200 laptop computers for the sheriff's patrol cars.

In announcing the federal grants on Thursday, U.S. Rep. Karen Thurman, D-Dunnellon, said the money will help make Pasco a safer place in which "to live, work and learn."

"With the help of these needed funds, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office will have the resources necessary to enhance law enforcement throughout the community, including the schools," Thurman said in a news release.

The grants were awarded under the Justice Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

The Sheriff's Office will receive $625,000 to fund five new full-time deputies. The new deputies will take the place of more experienced officers, who will be assigned to five Pasco schools to improve security and teach crime prevention.

Kevin Doll, a spokesman for Sheriff Bob White, said the agency has not yet decided which schools will get the new resource officers.

The Sheriff's Office also will receive $883,874 to help buy technology designed to reduce the time patrol deputies spend doing paperwork and give them immediate access to computerized records. Under the terms of the technology grant, the county must come up with a funding match of 25 percent -- a little more than $220,000.

Specifically, the grant will pay for 200 new laptop computers to be installed in patrol cars. That will allow deputies to file reports electronically and will free up the agency's overburdened communications system, White said.

"Our channels are so jammed, it's difficult for our deputies to actually get on," White said. "If we can get laptops in cars, we can cut down radio traffic."

Other benefits include the ability for road deputies to review prior incidents at addresses, perform criminal background checks and pull up maps of the county on their computer screens.

A previous grant paid for 50 laptop computers that were installed in supervisors' patrol cars.

Doll said he did not know when the agency would get the new grant money.

-- Staff writer Ryan Davis contributed to this report.

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