City officials briefly debated a College Park City Council member’s suggestion to apply a homeland security grant to a study on creating a city police department, but many said the money could be better spent on emergency response equipment like traffic cones and radios.
District 3 Councilman Eric Olson recommended using the $20,000 award from the Prince George’s County Office of Homeland Security to fund a police study at last night’s council worksession, but some council members and Mayor Stephen Brayman questioned if it would meet the office’s grant criteria.
Olson argued it would, because the list of possible uses includes commissioning security experts to aid cities.
“Councilman Olson is on another planet,” said District 2 Councilman Jack Perry. “Sometimes as soon as he starts talking, I stop listening. He’s single-tracked.”
Brayman applauded Olson for his ingenuity, but said he thinks equipment such as weather radios, traffic cones, electricity generators and flashlights would be a safer use of the funding. About $15,000 would cover the purchases and training and the remainder could go to the College Park Volunteer Fire Department, officials said.
Funding for generators might already be committed, Olson said, but the council directed staff to ask grant officials if some of the money could be applied to a police force study.
“I thought I was really doing something substantial,” Olson said. “To make our way toward a police force is probably the most important thing we could do from a homeland security perspective. … I think in the end there was a sense of ‘we will look into this,’ that it is creative and that it could work. But I’m not banking on it.”
The homeland security office requested the city submit paperwork on its decision by the end of next week.
Currently, there is no independent city police force. The city is patrolled by Prince George’s County and University Police. City officials have been considering a city police force study for more than a year, following a rash of violence crimes including two murders, a rape and armed robbery all in one week last May.
One month later, the Student Government Association offered to donate $10,000 for a police study if the council agreed to match it. Officials declined, however, citing a price tag between $50,000 and $100,000 for a full-scale study. Former City Manager Sam Finz estimated a smaller-scale study could cost between $15,000 and $30,000.
District 2 Councilman Bob Catlin said some members did not think the grant should be spent on a study because the city would like to see a study completed anyway.
The grant program will assist the county’s 27 cities and towns and can be used for planning, equipment purchases, training or exercise. The amount of the city’s award was based on its population of 25,000 residents. City officials agreed the extra funding was a pleasant surprise, though Perry said he does not think it is the government’s role to fund homeland security measures in general.
“Sooner or later people have to start thinking for themselves and taking care of themselves,”Perry said. “The government is not necessarily the answer, and the government seems to just pour money into it.”
