Levelland PD grows through grant process

The Levelland Police Department is continuously working to update, upgrade equipment for their department and that process is continuing in the application for ballistic shields. During the last regular meeting held by the Levelland City Council, an agenda item was presented to the board by Chief of Police Albert Garcia regarding the application for a grant that would result in the department receiving new ballistic shields that could handle assault rifle impact. Originally asking the council for the amount of $42,000, the chief believes that the amount needed will be less if approved by the shield company. The City Council unanimously agreed to approve the submission of the grant as Chief Garcia explained that the shields could be utilized in an array of situations if necessary. Applying for grants is something that allows the department to continue to update and upgrade their equipment while being mindful of taxpayer’s dollars. “Recently, we received a little over $9,300 for body armor for our officers,” said Chief Garcia. “This is good thing for us right now. That’s probably one of the most exciting pieces of news we’ve gotten so far is getting this body armor grant.” Chief Garcia explained that the grant is a BVP grant which is Ballistic Vest Program through the federal government. That grant is a 50-50 match type grant. For example, if each vest cost the department $900 then their grant is paying for half of the $900 and the department will pick up the tab for the other half. “With the number of new employees, we have brought on, it’s still good for us,” said Chief Garcia. “We have older vests, it is time to replace them.” The ballistic armor that the department utilizes is usually rated to be exchanged or changed out every five years. Typically, the department tries to have at least half of the staff being rotated out.

“If we can’t get half of the staff rotated out, we’ll try to do rotations with seven or eight each year with a year off potentially,” explained Chief Garcia. “After about a five-year rotation, we’ll start it all over again. When we’re able to obtain grants, and federal grants that’s a good thing for us because it helps us to make sure that we’re maintaining the most protective equipment for our officers out there.”

Chief Garcia explained that the governor’s office opened funding opportunities for all agencies across the state of Texas that either have school police or have officers that are assigned to schools or may potentially have to respond to school type emergency events.

“This grant is specifically for nothing more than protective shields,” said Chief Garcia. “One of the things that Uvalde Police Department had made mentioned as far as why they took so long to respond and to rescue the kids was because they said that they didn’t have the appropriate ballistic shields to go in.”

Luckily, the department in Levelland already has a handful of ballistic shields available. Regardless of receiving the grant or not, the chief feels that would not deter his officers from going in and doing what we needed to do if something should arise.

“With this grant coming up, we feel like there is a valid need for us to potentially have enough shields to be more readily available to enter any school district with shields in hand,” said Chief Garcia. Weighing roughly 30 pounds apiece, the shields will also have lighting attachments for low light or dark scenarios. The chief feels that this is a great opportunity to be more proactive and will allow his department to do a better job in responding to any type of situation that may require some type of ballistic armor. “The governor’s office has brought this to life because of what happened in Uvalde,” said Chief Garcia. “These shields can be utilized in other scenarios as well if we have an active shooter in the school districts, in a church, any type of business or if we have another situation like what we had July 15, 2021, where we had somebody that barricaded themselves in their homes.” Chief Garcia says these shields and equipment brought in can be utilized in varying scenarios and will allow his officers to excel at their job. However, it is not always a given that they will receive every grant they apply for and that means every grant opportunity approved is a blessing for the chief and his department. When dealing or applying for grants with the governor’s office, the key things that they look at is how well the agency applying expressed their need and where they sit on the list as there are a lot of agencies at different levels applying for the same grant. “It’s kind of a competition across all the agencies in the state of Texas,” said Chief Garcia. “If you submit your application to late in the ball game, then you may not get funded because you’ve applied so late, and money has run out.” Chief Garcia feels good about the timing of being able to apply for the grant and is optimistic they will hear if they were approved or denied by December at the latest.

“When our application is reviewed, if they feel like we qualify they’ll award us, but if not, then they will let us know what we’re missing or why we’re not being allotted the money,” explained Chief Garcia. “However, they may also say well they can’t give us this, but they give us a partial award or more flexible alternative.

When it comes to acquiring new equipment for the department, Chief Garcia says it is a mixture of budgeting with the capital of their expenditure outlay and the application of grant processes. Trying to be mindful of taxpayer money, the department continuously upgrade or replace necessary items to continue to do their job successfully.

The grant process allows for the department to chip away at a good chunk of items needing to be replaced such as the ballistic vests.

“We try to do our due diligence and make sure that we trying to save taxpayer money as much as we can,” said Chief Garcia. “If we can find grants available out there, we hope we’re able to obtain those grants then that’s a good thing for us.”

In the past, the department has obtained grants to upgrade all the mobile radios within the patrol vehicles. That grant was worth $46,000 and the upgraded equipment did not cost taxpayers’ any money.

“We’ve applied for different types of grants for other equipment that that was much needed to replace some of the old infrastructure that we’ve had either with telecommunications or with our radio systems,” said Chief Garcia.

“When we look at the different resources, we want to make sure that we’re trying to tap into a much-needed resource for us so we can be good stewards of the taxpayer’s money. We want to make sure that we’re not just constantly putting in for capital outlay expenditures when we can try to go through the grant resources to obtain those as well.”

With the addition of the Blue and You Program that is now in place for the department to become closer to the community, there have been grant opportunities for programs such as those.

Chief Garcia was able to apply for a $3,000 grant last year and was approved. The chief explained that those funds helped subsidize some of the communityoriented events that were held last year. “We’re going to keep pressing forward on grant opportunities,” said Chief Garcia. “Sometimes we’re blessed and get those grants sometimes and sometimes that is not the case.”

The chief explained that the department will continue to go through grant processes in the future, but the intent is to not take advantage of the process if it is not necessary.

A few options the chief is looking into is an addition to the canine staff.

“I’m looking at maybe increasing our canine staff by one and adding another dog to the to the department,” said Chief Garcia. “I’ve got my eye right now on an organization that’s down in central Texas that actually donates a fully vetted and fully trained narcotic searching drug dogs.”

The chief says the department will most likely be on the list at some point as getting another dog in their rank would benefit the department. “We’re looking at maybe applying for additional grants or trying to see if we can get additional resources to increase the drone program here,” said Chief Garcia. “We have a couple of drone operators already and if we can get another drone that helps to put more eyes in the sky, that’s helpful.”

Chief Garcia and his department are continuously trying to think outside the box when it comes to gaining an advantage to doing their job better.

“It’s the little things and constant growth of our assets that just helped help us,” explained Chief Garcia. “It helps our department to continue to strive to do better for our community.”