Auburn Police Department Chief Gary Giannotta is frustrated that his agency - the largest law enforcement agency in Cayuga County - has no direct access to homeland security funding.
Since the creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in November 2002 after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a solitary law enforcement agency is designated for each county or other local jurisdiction as the point of contact for homeland security dollars. The Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program (LETPP) grants are funneled from the federal cabinet-level department to state-level homeland security departments to be administered to point agencies representing local jurisdictions.
Those point agencies can decide to share homeland security dollars with other agencies, but they are not mandated to.
For Cayuga County, that point agency is the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office.
This unitary funding channel came to light recently for Giannotta when he explored the outcome of a list of equipment and vendor's price quotes he compiled toward a LETPP grant application made by the sheriff's office in 2005.
Giannotta said the information was requested by Cayuga County Sheriff Rob Outhouse shortly before the application was due Feb. 25, 2005. Giannotta said he was under the impression that if the county's LETPP application was successful that the APD would receive $10,000 to purchase patrol car radios that would allow direct communication with the narrowband radios used in sheriff's deputy patrol cars. Even when he heard the application was successful, Giannotta said he was left wondering if his department would receive the $10,000. Giannotta even included the $10,000 in with his equipment budgetary line.
Outhouse said Friday that Giannotta was mistaken over how the grant process works and that solving the patrol car communication difficulties was a work in progress.
“We haven't come to the conclusions yet,” Outhouse said. “That's where we're at. It's not a $10,000 check.”
The grant was written so the LETPP money could be used to purchase of narrowband radios for APD patrol cars or the purchase of some kind of interface that will make the two types of radio systems intercommunicable, Outhouse said.
Outhouse said his office has not directly received the $10,000 in LETPP grant money dedicated to purchase equipment to enable APD cars to receive the county frequency. He said the money has not been spent yet and won't be spent on anything besides equipment to enable the two agencies' cars to be able to intercommunicate. He submits his quarterly grant reports in compliance with homeland security stipulations, Outhouse added.
The APD's and the sheriff's office's patrol cars have not had the ability to talk directly to each other for years. The sheriff's office and the APD have two different kinds of radio systems. They can communicate on an interagency band that is available to all law enforcement agencies but it is dedicated for use as a universal broadcast of serious emergencies like a bank robbery or an officer shooting. They can also communicate through messages called into the county's 911 dispatchers, but dispatchers are overworked answering dozens of other calls.
While the two law enforcement heads don't have the same understanding of how the county's LETPP money is to be hashed out, they do agree they have a communications problem for their officers on the road.
“If we pass a sheriff's car going south and we're going north, we can't talk to them,” Giannotta said. “This is an issue that needs to be remedied.”
“We wrote the grant with the goal in mind so we can communicate,” Outhouse said. “They're in our jurisdiction so we need to talk to them.”
“Cayuga County has identified interoperable communications as one of its Homeland Security priorities ... Finally funds will be provided to the City of Auburn Police Department to allow them to receive the County frequency in their vehicles,” states the Fiscal Year 2005 LETPP application the Sheriff's Office made in February 2005 to the New York State Office of Homeland Security.
Outhouse said that spending money right now on narrowband radios for APD patrol cars is premature because the cell phone company Nextel is paying to move law enforcement communications to other bands. Some law enforcement agencies are using bands close to the bands Nextel's phones use.
Giannotta said he didn't know until recently that it was largely discretionary on how the sheriff's office implements LETPP grant money it has successfully applied for. On Friday, Giannotta said he is still waiting to hear from a Homeland Security grant manager for a follow-up clarification on the LETPP grant process.
“We've gotten no funding, and this is the second year we've not been included,” Giannotta said.
As the countywide law enforcement agency and the point of contact for homeland security, Outhouse said it's a matter of his department being beneficent to include the APD in homeland security grants.
Dennis Michalski, a spokesperson for the state Office of Homeland Security, confirmed Saturday that Cayuga County's LETPP grant is in compliance. He added that he could not address specifics of any conflicts over the grant.
While one agency is designated as the point of contact for a local jurisdiction, the New York State Office of Homeland Security encourages interagency cooperation to develop a homeland security strategy that will help all local agencies and work in concert with state strategy, Michalski said.
“But we can't mandate that,” Michalski said. “It's a home-rule state.”
Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net
Those point agencies can decide to share homeland security dollars with other agencies, but they are not mandated to.
For Cayuga County, that point agency is the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office.
This unitary funding channel came to light recently for Giannotta when he explored the outcome of a list of equipment and vendor's price quotes he compiled toward a LETPP grant application made by the sheriff's office in 2005.
Giannotta said the information was requested by Cayuga County Sheriff Rob Outhouse shortly before the application was due Feb. 25, 2005. Giannotta said he was under the impression that if the county's LETPP application was successful that the APD would receive $10,000 to purchase patrol car radios that would allow direct communication with the narrowband radios used in sheriff's deputy patrol cars. Even when he heard the application was successful, Giannotta said he was left wondering if his department would receive the $10,000. Giannotta even included the $10,000 in with his equipment budgetary line.
Outhouse said Friday that Giannotta was mistaken over how the grant process works and that solving the patrol car communication difficulties was a work in progress.
“We haven't come to the conclusions yet,” Outhouse said. “That's where we're at. It's not a $10,000 check.”
The grant was written so the LETPP money could be used to purchase of narrowband radios for APD patrol cars or the purchase of some kind of interface that will make the two types of radio systems intercommunicable, Outhouse said.
Outhouse said his office has not directly received the $10,000 in LETPP grant money dedicated to purchase equipment to enable APD cars to receive the county frequency. He said the money has not been spent yet and won't be spent on anything besides equipment to enable the two agencies' cars to be able to intercommunicate. He submits his quarterly grant reports in compliance with homeland security stipulations, Outhouse added.
The APD's and the sheriff's office's patrol cars have not had the ability to talk directly to each other for years. The sheriff's office and the APD have two different kinds of radio systems. They can communicate on an interagency band that is available to all law enforcement agencies but it is dedicated for use as a universal broadcast of serious emergencies like a bank robbery or an officer shooting. They can also communicate through messages called into the county's 911 dispatchers, but dispatchers are overworked answering dozens of other calls.
While the two law enforcement heads don't have the same understanding of how the county's LETPP money is to be hashed out, they do agree they have a communications problem for their officers on the road.
“If we pass a sheriff's car going south and we're going north, we can't talk to them,” Giannotta said. “This is an issue that needs to be remedied.”
“We wrote the grant with the goal in mind so we can communicate,” Outhouse said. “They're in our jurisdiction so we need to talk to them.”
“Cayuga County has identified interoperable communications as one of its Homeland Security priorities ... Finally funds will be provided to the City of Auburn Police Department to allow them to receive the County frequency in their vehicles,” states the Fiscal Year 2005 LETPP application the Sheriff's Office made in February 2005 to the New York State Office of Homeland Security.
Outhouse said that spending money right now on narrowband radios for APD patrol cars is premature because the cell phone company Nextel is paying to move law enforcement communications to other bands. Some law enforcement agencies are using bands close to the bands Nextel's phones use.
Giannotta said he didn't know until recently that it was largely discretionary on how the sheriff's office implements LETPP grant money it has successfully applied for. On Friday, Giannotta said he is still waiting to hear from a Homeland Security grant manager for a follow-up clarification on the LETPP grant process.
“We've gotten no funding, and this is the second year we've not been included,” Giannotta said.
As the countywide law enforcement agency and the point of contact for homeland security, Outhouse said it's a matter of his department being beneficent to include the APD in homeland security grants.
Dennis Michalski, a spokesperson for the state Office of Homeland Security, confirmed Saturday that Cayuga County's LETPP grant is in compliance. He added that he could not address specifics of any conflicts over the grant.
While one agency is designated as the point of contact for a local jurisdiction, the New York State Office of Homeland Security encourages interagency cooperation to develop a homeland security strategy that will help all local agencies and work in concert with state strategy, Michalski said.
“But we can't mandate that,” Michalski said. “It's a home-rule state.”
Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net
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