Wednesday, August 09, 2000
Police levy funds go unspent
No new communication equipment yet
By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Police agencies in Hamilton County will have to wait until at least 2001 to start using the millions in new equipment voters agreed to pay for more than two years ago.
The police communications levy, called CLEAR (County Law Enforcement Applied Regionally), passed in May 1998. It will generate more than $21 million over five years.
It was sold to voters as a way to better equip thousands of officers by helping buy things like new cruiser computers and a computerized fingerprint system. The tools will give officers more time on the streets and let them check suspect's histories more thoroughly and faster.
Both are necessary, supporters say, to bring local agencies in line technologically with other major U.S. cities.
The money started flowing into county coffers in mid-1999. But because it has taken many months to do such things as choose vendors and channel hundreds of officers into planning groups, organizers are only now getting close to being ready to buy the main parts.
Mariemont Police Chief Richard Pope, chairman of the CLEAR levy board, rebutted any suggestion that the process has taken longer than expected.
“It's a huge project,” he said. “This stuff doesn't hap pen overnight.”
First, Chief Pope said, the money had to build up. Unlike other levy committees, the CLEAR committee decided against borrowing the money and paying it back when the tax started rolling in. Having the money faster wasn't necessary, he said, because organizers knew it would take months to poll the dozens of agencies involved, get everyone on board with the plan and then decide which vendors and software to use.
Then a snag came in the form of a federal grant. It will help pay for the $16 million worth of cruiser computers, but its deadline forced planners to shift their attention to that process, the chief said. The approximately 600 laptops allow officers to spend more time working the streets because paperwork can be done more quickly. Their installation now is expected to start early next year.
The Automated Fingerprint Identification System should be online shortly before that. It allows a suspect's fingerprints to be checked almost immediately against others on file around the country.
As of late June, the CLEAR levy fund held $4.8 million in cash, according to Auditor Dusty Rhodes.
Any frustration by officers over the delay is understandable, Chief Pope said, because it's human nature to want to use new, high-tech equipment as soon as possible.
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