DEPARTMENT: Police
DEPARTMENT HEAD: William P. McManus, Chief of Police
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City Wide
SUBJECT:
Office of National Drug Control Policy 2020 HIDTA Grant submission and application
SUMMARY:
An Ordinance authorizing the submission of a grant application and acceptance of funds upon award in an amount up to $2,136,824.00 including the acceptance of additional grant funds up to a limit of 20% of the grant from the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) for a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) grant and establishing a budget and maintaining a personnel complement of 17 City Positions for the period of January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2021.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) has been awarded the HIDTA Grant since 1993. The HIDTA mission is to reduce drug trafficking in the San Antonio metropolitan area by instituting innovative narcotic enforcement investigations and the seizure of illegally obtained assets in an effort to reduce the profitability of narcotics trafficking.
The San Antonio HIDTA Initiative, a multi-agency task force, performs drug interdiction operations designed to enhance the Police Department's narcotics enforcement efforts. This program allows the unit to use task force concepts which provides the capability to cross jurisdictional boundaries by employing law enforcement officers from local, state, and federal levels. The program targets narcotics organizations by focusing on the middle to upper level traffickers, and investigates the distribution of narcotics and related enterprises. Members of this unit are trained to investigate money laundering, asset structuring, financial auditing, and to apply surveillance techniques necessary to develop intelligence and make arrests.
The San Antonio HIDTA Initiative includes representation from the San Antonio Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the Department of Public Safety (DPS), the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the South Texas HIDTA Intelligence Center, HIDTA Prevention and Support Services, and the Director's Administrative Support Office.
The South Texas HIDTA Intelligence Center has a two-fold responsibility. The center will respond to inquiries from San Antonio and surrounding counties' criminal justice agencies by providing timely intelligence reports gathered from databases of the respective member agencies. Secondly, the center will act as a de-confliction unit for South Texas, which covers an area from Bexar County, south to Brownsville, and west to Del Rio. This section of the center is of paramount importance to the safety of officers in the field. It is responsible for maintaining up to date information gathered from all law enforcement agencies operating in South Texas. With information provided by these agencies, the unit will identify potential conflicts involving officer safety and immediately notify the affected agencies of the potential conflict in order to avoid possible tragic and disastrous consequences.
The FY 2020 HIDTA Budget, if awarded, will not exceed $2,136,824.00, however, the ordinance also authorizes the acceptance of supplemental funding in the amount up to 20% that may come available during the grant period. In FY 2019, the SAPD was awarded supplemental funding of $53,627.00 for the HIDTA Initiative in addition to the initial grant award of $2,136,824.00.
ISSUE:
This ordinance continues City Council's policy of seeking intergovernmental financial assistance for City crime prevention and enforcement programs, specifically addressing drug crime activity. The program from ONDCP will enhance the City's efforts in dealing with drug trafficking.
ALTERNATIVES:
This grant enhances the Police Department narcotics enforcement.
FISCAL IMPACT:
This ordinance authorizes the submission of a grant application and acceptance of funds upon award, not to exceed $2,136,824.00. The total proposed program budget of $2,136,824.00 is broken up into seven related segments as follows: the San Antonio Police Department HIDTA Task Force $850,508.00; the DEA HIDTA Task Force $211,825.00; the HSI HIDTA Task Force $93,717.00; the DPS HIDTA Task Force $48,979.00; the South Texas HIDTA Intelligence Center $617,576.00; the Director's Administrative Support Element $88,100.00; and the HIDTA Prevention and Support Services $226,119.00. A General Fund cash match is not required. The grant will continue to fund the 17 authorized positions of which 6 are uniform and 11 are civilian employees.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council approve the submission, and if awarded the acceptance, of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area grant.