Upgrading the Safety of Officers in the Benton Harbor Metropolitan Area.

The City of Benton Harbor Department of Public Safety is seeking to use the Byrne funds allocated to update and improve operations in the department. This will be done through a few different ways.
The first item will be a Tactical Level III Shield for active violence response, this item would be assigned to each vehicle in the department. Having a few active shooter events in the community and then a few possibles at the local school district, this shield is important tool to protect the officers as they get out of the vehicle and approach the scenes.
The second item is a replacement optic. BHDPS put optic on the pistols several years back and those optics are nearing end of life. The one-time replacement costs would be more than the current budget can handle; thus we would be seeking to use this allocation to replace this items. The optics have been monumental in increasing officer safety and effectiveness and have reduced the potential of mistake of fact shootings.
The third item is an additional radar unit for a traffic enforcement unit. Since the end of the COVID era shutdowns and return of functions, speeding and speed related crashes are up. This radar unit would be used in a speed enforcement vehicle to be proactive in the enforcement of speed and its other related issues.
The City of Benton Harbor is the administrator of this grant and will seek administrative fees from other grantees as allowed by the grant. Those fees will be used for the allowable administrative operations in the grant administration.
The other partners in this grant are the County of Berrien and Benton Charter Township.