Grant awards improve service with new equipment
Pinal County Sheriff’s Office
Paul Babeu
Sheriff
October, 2009
Pinal County Regional DUI Task Force” van was fully funded by the
Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.
Photo by PCSO
Florence, Ariz. - Budgets have been reduced, yet crime has risen during
this economic downturn. We have improved staff training, added new technology and
equipment to ensure improved safety for Pinal families. Many citizens questioned
how law enforcement could improve service and purchase millions of dollars in new
equipment while in an economic recession. Budgets have been reduced by 10%, many
vacant staff positions frozen, or even laid off.
We are working smarter and demanding accountability. We hired Tim Gaffney, as our
grant administrator and he applied for nearly $7 million dollars in new grant funds
to enhance law enforcement operations. PCSO did not have a coordinator and therefore
lost millions in state and federal monies.
Today, we have forty-nine grants that are worth $6,888,610.53 and another six pending,
which are worth $761,026. Finance managers Anna Parra and Linda Martinez do an amazing
job keeping track of these grants and the required financial reporting.
Hand held radar unit.
Portable breath test machines.
portable radio -
Motorola XTS2500.
Just this month, we received over $1.3 million in grants. Our $320,000 “Pinal County
Regional DUI Task Force” van was fully funded by the Arizona Governor’s Office of
Highway Safety and came with an additional $130,000 to fund officer salaries to
provide sustained DUI enforcement throughout Pinal County. We have all thirteen
local Police agencies participating in weekly DUI enforcement details. This goes
a long way to combat alcohol-related collisions, which are the leading cause of
death for people between the ages of six (6) and thirty-three (33), and that more
than fifty percent of all fatal collisions in Pinal County are alcohol related.
These facts should alarm everyone. Pinal County Police Chiefs and your Sheriff’s
Office are now fighting DUI with zero tolerance. Gone are the days when a DUI driver
gets stopped by the Police and is allowed to park their car and get a ride home.
Computer aided accident reconstruction equipment. Photo by PCSO
We received four grants totaling $498,000 to purchase upgraded portable radios (Motorola
XTS2500) which will greatly improve communications and officer safety. Hard charging
patrol Sgt. Jason Villegas even wrote a grant request and we received nearly $250,000
towards this total award! This radio allows PCSO interoperability, which is the
ability to speak directly with other emergency responders. Many citizens believed
Deputies had this ability, yet we could not speak directly with other law enforcement
agencies or fire departments.
Grant funding is also paying for new communications consoles in Dispatch, training
programs, computers & radios in patrol vehicles, new ballistic vests, hand held
radar units, portable breath test machines, computer aided accident reconstruction
equipment, stop sticks, light towers for night emergencies and motorcycles.
Light towers for night emergencies. Photo by PCSO
PCSO new motorcycles. Photo by PCSO
Your Sheriff’s Office has come a long way in ten months. I appreciate our 700 full
time employees who have embraced the many changes since I became Sheriff. Their
passion and dedication to serve our Pinal families is simply amazing. I’m very proud
of their hard work ethic and their discipline, as their work load (crime) has increased.
Together, we are fully committed to improve operations and law enforcement service,
until we attain our goal in becoming the finest Sheriff’s Office in Arizona.
Respectfully,
Paul R. Babeu, Sheriff
Pinal County, Arizona
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