Police department could receive funding boost Monday

By Riley Funk

The St. Joseph Police Department may receive needed funding to build on its fleet and continue serving the community if approved at Monday night’s city council meeting.

The council will vote to approve $51,878 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to purchase firearms for 37 police vehicles.

Police Chief Paul Luster said this funding is just another step in modernizing the department in that it would help provide equipment to enhance the department’s take-home program.

“We’re working toward modernizing the fleet and going to a take-home car program for our officers to where they’ll be assigned their own vehicle,” Luster said. “Obviously, that adds vehicles to our fleet that weren’t existing and you have to have equipment for those vehicles.”

The firearms added to each vehicle will be a police rifle and a less lethal shotgun. According to city documents, equipping cars with firearms is to “provide officers with versatility to effectively respond to a wide range of critical situations.”

“That’s just another tool for our officers to do their job safely,” Luster said.

The discussion of a police take-home program was moved forward in May 2023, when the city council purchased 27 new police vehicles.

The purchase of the vehicles and potential purchase of firearms is what Luster describes as a recruitment tool for the department. He said it’s a big deal to have the city supporting that vision.

“They’ve been very supportive of the take-home fleet. We see that as something good here in St. Joe. That’s going to hopefully be a help us with recruiting new officers to the city,” Luster said. “It’s also going to give us more visibility, police visibility in the community. We are this city’s police department, we work for them.”

The police department may also receive funds to purchase new motorcycles for its traffic division.