The Hawarden Police Department will now have an additional tool to help them in their continuing effort to provide quality law enforcement services to the Hawarden Community. The Hawarden Police Department has purchased two in car video cameras in part thanks to funds from a Local Law Enforcement Block Grant provided through the Governor’s Office of Drug Policy.

In July of 2000, Chief Mike DeBruin applied for a grant for the cameras and other needed equipment. The Hawarden Police Department was awarded over $9,300.00 through this grant. This grant has a 10% matching funds provision in which this amount is provided through the police department budget. This grant is a “competitive” grant in which agencies all over the state may apply without any restrictions to department size. During this period the Office of Drug Control Policy received 93 grant applications requesting more than $789,000.00. Of those who applied, 42 projects were selected for funding, totaling $295,867.00, which was the full amount of program dollars available.

Without the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant funds, a purchase like this probably would not be affordable for smaller police departments. With the addition of these cameras to the patrol cars, evidence can be collected for traffic stops and arrests. We also hope to use them to add professionalism to the department. The cameras will be used to record all traffic stops and traffic related arrests. According to Chief DeBruin “using the cameras we can, not only gather needed evidence, we can also look back and critique ourselves to see if there is anything we could have done to display a more professional approach in handling different and often difficult situations.”

This year is the first year that the Hawarden Police Department has actively pursued grants that are available to them. In the 2000-2001 fiscal year the Police Department has applied for two grants and has been awarded for than $10,200.00 in grant money.

The other grant that was applied for was for bulletproof vests. This grant was a federal grant that matches 50% of police department funds. In 1993 the Hawarden City Council, in an effort to provide safety for the police officers, approved spending to equip every officer in the police department with bullet proof vests. It is recommended that every five years bulletproof vests be replaced. The Federal Bullet Proof Vest Grant became available as a funding source for the vests. The grant was applied for in April of 2000 and awarded in July of 2000.