AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin City Council on Thursday accepted an ordinance that will direct hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Austin Police Department to help its members continue fighting COVID-19.
The ordinance allocates $885,407 in grant funds from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs and the Bureau of Justice Assistance for the Coronavirus Emergency Supplemental Funding Program.
According to the APD, the funding would cover the costs of personal protective equipment (PPE), decontamination equipment and other items used to combat the spread of COVID 19. Without it, the department said it would struggle to reallocate its own internal resources or have to seek alternative federal funds to cover the costs of PPE for first responders.
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The funds will be allocated as follows:
- $842,977 for PPE for two years
- $30,853 for overtime related to pandemic response
- $9,216 for future emergency management preparedness training
The grant covers a two-year time period from January 2020 to January 2022, which allows the APD to secure PPE and prepare for any recurrence of the virus through the fall and winter.
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