FY 24 Edward Byrne Memorial JAG

The Linn County Sheriff’s Office, and the Cedar Rapids Police Department are certified disparate jurisdictions. The Linn County Sheriff’s Office will be the fiscal agent responsible for the grant. Both agencies have agreed to split the grant 50/50, which is a total of $49,470. Cedar Rapids Police Department will receive $24,735, and the Linn County Sheriff Office will receive $24,735 (see MOU).
The Cedar Rapids Police Department has identified the need to replace and upgrade several duty rifles. Several of the current duty rifles have been in service for 24 years. These rifles are showing signs of wear and are experiencing various failures. Additionally, the ADM rifle the Cedar Rapids Police Department has identified as the new duty rifle, comes direct from the manufacturer with ambidextrous controls for our left-handed shooters and fitted with a quick detach muzzle break for the possible future addition of a suppressor.

Cedar Rapids Police Departments portion of Byrne Jag funds is expected to be $24,735. With a current contract price of $1,474.00 per rifle, plus an additional $875.90 in optics and accessories, the department expects to purchase approximately 11 new fully outfitted rifles with this funding.
The Linn County Sheriff’s Office has currently been in the process of purchasing mobile computers/tablets for our fleet of vehicles. They made progress in purchasing some mobile computers/tablets, but with a limited budget, they do not have the funding to purchase computers for all our vehicles without the help of this grant. The grant allows us to purchase five mobile computers, as we estimate the price to be $4,947 per unit, for a total time of $24,735.
The purchase of the abovementioned equipment will help report efficiency, accuracy and reduce on-air communications between dispatch and staff. Improving technology within the Sheriff’s Office has been a priority, as internal research has highlighted how adding mobile computers has reduced the time officers are speeding in the office doing paperwork. Instead of spending hours at the office doing reports, officers have the ability to do most paperwork in the field, which allows for an increase in officer presence and often reduces response times. They are anticipating purchasing additional mobile computers within the next 12 months, however, we recently changed vehicles and are working through some equipment setup challenges, as well as backlog on availability of inventory, so that timeframe is subject to change.
This grant gives them the ability to get one-step closer to fulfilling their goal of adding this essential equipment. Adding this equipment would improve efficiency, accuracy and reduce on-air communications between dispatch and staff. This equipment would also allow their officer to spend more time on patrol since they have the necessary equipment in their vehicles and less time at the office working on reports. This will help with a problem area of keeping their officer on the streets instead of doing paperwork at the office. Having a greater officer presence has been a past problem, as most arrest requires officer to spend well over an hour at the office completing paperwork. With this additional equipment, that time will be drastically reduced. In addition, the dispatch center has seen an increase in calls for service as well as on-air communications. This will better enable our dispatchers to utilize the mobile public safety (MPS) software that will post calls for service directly to the mobile computers and reduce on-air communications.
The targeted area and population for Cedar Rapids Police will be on the Southeast portion of the city. They have been experiencing high call volumes, especially with shootings and other criminal activity.
The target area and population for the Linn County Sheriff’s Office will also be on the Southeast portion of the City of Cedar Rapids. The Sheriff’s Office will help with calls for service for the City and it is not uncommon to have both Cedar Rapids Police Department and the Sheriff’s Office assisting each other. The equipment we are requesting will be assigned to our fleet of vehicles, which routinely operates within the city limits of Cedar Rapids. They interact with a wide range of the population.