GARDEN GROVE : Council May Apply for Grant to Get Officers

The City Council tonight will consider a request by Police Chief Stanley L. Knee to apply for a federal grant that could add four new officers to the Police Department.

The grant application will be submitted to the Justice Department under the Cops Ahead program included in President Clinton’s crime bill, which seeks to add 100,000 new police officers nationwide in the fight against crime.

The program allows cities with a population of more than 50,000 to apply for federal grants to pay, in part, the cost of additional police officers.

In December, the Justice Department tentatively approved the city’s request for four new officers, and Knee said a formal application for the grant now must be submitted.

If approved, the grant would provide $75,000 in federal funding per police officer for three years, representing about 40% of the officer’s salary, Knee said. The remaining 60% would come from the city’s general fund, he said.

“The addition of four officers will certainly enhance the department’s efforts to improve the quality of life in Garden Grove,” Knee said in a report to the council.

Knee said that two of the officers would be assigned to patrol, and the two others would form an Asian Neighborhood Improvement team that would work full time in the city’s southern section, home to most of the city’s Korean businesses.

The officers would attend the Golden West College Police Academy, which was selected because it emphasizes community policing skills, Knee said. The officers would graduate in December.