Texas Border Business
McALLEN, Texas – At approximately $15 million in approved grant funds, 2022 is the City of McAllen Police Department’s most successful year for approved grant applications.
Some grant applications succeeded only after several application attempts. The U.S. Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing (DOJ COPS) Grant succeeded during this cycle. On October 13, 2022, the City of McAllen was notified of its successful 2022 fiscal year COPS hiring grant application of $1.875 million to increase the McAllen Police Department strength by 15 sworn officers.
Another notable grant success during this cycle was the Texas Rio Grande Valley Texas Anti-Gang grant.
On September 17, 2021, HB 5, the Texas 87th (2) Legislative Session, in part, appropriated $180 million from the general revenue fund “for the purpose of supporting the work of Texas Anti-Gang Center programs.”
The McAllen Police Department, through the TX RGV TAG developed a grant application that included a funding request for software, hardware, and equipment for use by the RGV TAG (user) agencies.
The original request included $33,653,386 for equipment for valley-wide use by RGV TAG agencies.
On June 10, 2022, the City of McAllen received a Statement of Grant Award (SOGA) from the Texas Governor’s Office. The grant award was in the amount of $12,213,386 with a zero dollar match requirement.
Equipment projects authorized under this grant include facial recognition, license plate reader, mobile command unit, armored vehicles, and bomb response equipment.
These successful grant applications result in the most successful grant cycle for the City of McAllen Police Department.
Grants approved during this grant cycle total approximately $15 million and include:
- TX OOG CJD RGV TAG: $12.2 million;
- US DOJ COPS: $1.87 million;
- US Department of Homeland Security Stonegarden: $370,000;
- TX Office of the Governor Criminal Justice Division Local Border Security: $10,000;
- TX Department of Motor Vehicle-Brownsville Auto Theft: $325,000;
- TX Department of Transportation-STEP Traffic Enforcement: $100,000;
- TX Department of Public Safety-TTIC: $250,000.
“The City of McAllen strives to be resourceful in its efforts to provide the expected services to our community. It is only through those efforts that we may combine local, state and federal funds to provide the public safety service that our community deserves,” said McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez. “I want to express my special thanks to the men and women of the McAllen Police Department through which we deliver the services allowed through these grant projects.”
