‘Safest City’ Receives Grant for 4 Officers

Thousand Oaks has received $262,500 in federal money to subsidize the hiring of four more police officers.

It is the only Ventura County city to benefit from $604 million in grants announced by President Clinton on Wednesday to hire more police in the continuing effort to reduce crime.

The funds will not cover the entire cost of hiring one part-time and three full-time officers, and Thousand Oaks--recently cited again as the safest city over 100,000 population in the nation by the FBI--has the option of not accepting the money. However, City Manager Grant Brimhall said he expects the City Council will find some way to come up with the $1.1 million in matching funds.

“The council’s desire is to increase the number of police officers on the street,” he said. “That’s their top priority from a public safety standpoint.”

A request for funds is expected to be brought before the City Council next month, he said.

The grant will pay $25,000 annually for three years toward the cost of each full-time officer and half that for the part-time position.

However, it costs the city $110,000 a year to put a trained officer on the street, Brimhall said.

“It’s supposed to be a 50-50 match, but in California it ends up being a 25 match,” he said. “At least it’s $25,000 and not nothing.”

News of the grant came as somewhat of a surprise to municipal officials because the city applied for the grant two years ago, during the first phase of the federal crime bill designed to put thousands of more officers on the streets across the nation.