Police School for Citizens Might Return

A popular citizens police academy, closed in September to help close a city budget deficit, might be resurrected with a state grant.

Police officials and City Council members have been debating for weeks how to spend a $169,169 grant from the state’s Citizens Option for Public Safety program, known as COPS. The money is part of $100 million allocated to cities based on population.

Buena Park, facing a budget deficit of as much as $3 million, shaved $500,000 off spending projections over the summer and cut numerous civic programs, including the citizens academy.

Though council members have been wary of spending the grant money on programs that might have to be terminated when the cash runs out, Police Chief Richard M. Tefank suggested this week that the state funding might be renewed next year.

Besides the citizens police academy, where residents learn how the department operates through a series of classes that cost the city about $8,000 per year, Tefank also proposed creating police service aides.

Those part-time civilians would be trained to take reports in the field, which would free up patrol officers for other duties. That program would cost $52,000 a year. A $10,000 expenditure on creating a bicycle patrol is also under consideration.

The rest of the grant money would be spent on equipment such as a device to scan fingerprints and a computer program that could produce three-dimensional sketches of suspects.

A vote on how to spend the COPS money is set for the council’s Nov. 4 meeting.