BACKGROUND: The Division of Police has been awarded a FY2023 Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Act grant in the amount of $55,787.33. This is a federal grant program from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice. The Division of Police has been awarded a Forensic Science Improvement Act grant annually since 2003 to fund forensic lab personnel training, lab equipment purchases, and overtime costs to process casework. The City must be a subgrantee to the State of Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services to participate in this program according to the federal grant guidelines. Therefore, the Mayor is required to sign a subgrantee award to accept this grant on behalf of the City. The official City contact authorized to act in connection with this grant is Crime Lab Manager, Angela Farrington. The grant program provides funds to improve forensic crime lab activities. This FY2023 award will fund travel and training opportunities for at least 13 lab employees and at least 2 analysts in the Drug Identification Section. The Drug Identification Section will also be using grant funds to upgrade existing systems, the LabX software, which will allow them to electronically capture the weight of the evidence items and to purchase supplies such as barcode scanner docking stations and personal protective equipment.
Emergency Designation: Emergency legislation is necessary to meet the State of Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services processing deadline and to make the funds available as soon as possible for the grant award, as the grant start date was January 1, 2024 and we just received the signed grant agreement on May 30, 2024; The grant activity period is limited.
FISCAL IMPACT: This ordinance authorizes the acceptance and appropriation of a grant in the amount of $55,787.33 from the Federal government to fund equipment, supplies, and training and travel costs for the City's Crime Lab personnel. The City wa...
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