The Chief of Police for the Houston Police Department (HPD) requests City Council approval of an Interlocal Agreement with Harris County for the City of Houston to be a subrecipient of funds from the Texas Anti-Gang Grant Program by the Office of the Public Safety through the Office of the Texas Governor. The total amount of grant funding to the Houston Police Department is $14,952,675.00. HPD also requests City Council authorize the creation of a new Interest-Bearing Grant Fund for the TAG Grant.
The purpose of the Texas Anti-Gang (TAG) Grant program is to support multidisciplinary approaches to combat gang violence. HPD contributes heavily to the TAG initiatives, which enables participating law enforcement agencies to more efficiently and effectively collaborate on intelligence, investigations, and operational activities related to combating gangs and other criminal organizations operating in or affecting the region. Grant funds will be used to fund a Strategic Decision Support System (SDSS), Vehicles, Equipment, Software and Computers. All equipment that HPD purchases with this grant will be leveraged to optimize the TAGs multiagency initiative to identify, deter, disrupt and dismantle criminal organizations.
As background, the Houston Police Department, Katy Independent School District and the Harris County and Montgomery County Sheriff's Offices received a grant allocation through the Office of the Governor under the Texas Anti-Gang initiative (House Bill No. 5). Harris County is the prime recipient of the Texas Anti-Gang Grant and developed an Interlocal Agreement with the recipient parties to delineate the disbursement and management of the TAG grant award. HPD worked with City Legal and the Harris County Attorney's Office to finalize the Interlocal Agreement. Below are the allocations for each recipient of the TAG grant award:
City of Houston $14,952,675
Harris County: $1,237,160
Montgomery County: $103,520
Katy ISD: $ 94,970
The Houston Police Department also requests City Council to authorize the Chief of Police or his designee to act as the City’s representative in the application process with the authority to apply for, accept and expend the grant funds as awarded, and apply for, accept and expend all subsequent awards, if any, to extend the budget period, and to authorize the Mayor to execute all related agreements with the approval of the City Attorney in connection with the grant not to exceed five years.
Fiscal Note:
No Fiscal Note is required on grant items.
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Troy Finner
Chief of Police