By Robert Vitale
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS — As it deals with budget troubles that could ground helicopters and eliminate a recruit class, the Columbus Division of Police is installing 15 new flat-screen TVs in stations across the city.
The 50-inch monitors, to be used for officer training and informational sessions, cost $1,399 each. Grand total: $20,985.
The money came from drug dealers, via state and federal laws that let police agencies use seized assets to catch more criminals. But while city officials acknowledge that the extra money could pick up some costs usually borne by taxpayers, they say it can’t be used directly for their biggest budget worries.
“It cannot supplant your regular budget items,” Deputy Safety Director Dan Giangardella said. “It can’t pay for police officers.”
It can’t buy anything unless Chief James G. Jackson says so, either. The laws that created the state and federal funds give police chiefs and sheriffs sole authority over how the money is spent.
An opinion written in 1998 by the city attorney at the time, Janet E. Jackson, held that City Council members, who have final say over spending, don’t have the authority to say no. City Attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr. upheld that view this year.
Sgt. Richard Weiner, a police spokesman, said Chief Jackson uses the money to buy equipment for officers that Mayor Michael B. Coleman and the Department of Public Safety won’t provide. In the past, seized drug money has been spent on items such as in-car computers, Tasers, breath-testing equipment for drunken-driving suspects and goggles for motorcycle patrol officers.
The TVs are used to play training videos or broadcast directives from Jackson or other police officials, Weiner said. The models they replaced were too small to be seen across the room, he said.
“These are all necessities,” Weiner said. “They’re not luxuries.”
Giangardella said police officials have been instructed not to hook the sets up to cable.
Jim Gilbert, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9, praised the police chief’s spending decisions. The chief hosted a public meeting last fall to gather suggestions, and Gilbert said he seeks officers’ ideas as well.
By law, a portion of the money must go toward drug-education programs. It can be used for police cruisers and other vehicles -- Cleveland restored helicopter patrols with seized drug money in 2006 -- as well as equipment such as radios and computers.
It can’t pay salaries for existing officers, and federal rules also ban “extravagant expenditures.”
City officials say the TVs don’t fall in that category.
Councilman Andrew J. Ginther, who chairs the safety committee, said he reviews Jackson’s spending plans even though council members have no authority over the seized drug money.
“They’re not sitting around a police substation watching TV,” he said.
Copyright 2008 The Columbus Dispatch