FOLEY  — Despite initial hesitation from the Foley City Council regarding the acceptance of a COPS grant in the amount of $400,000, the police department will be allowed to use the grant to implement a video surveillance system in parts of the city.

The council was hesitant to accept the grant originally because the cameras included in the grant proposal would have a hefty maintenance cost every year. The maintenance cost was estimated to be at least $150,000 annually after the first year and the city would be required by the terms of the grant to maintain the camera system for at least three years.

Deputy Chief Randy Bishop went back to the drawing boards to see if there were any other alternatives, which would allow the police department to be able to accept the grant. Bishop found out once a COPS grant is awarded to a municipality the grant proposal can be rewritten, allowing changes. Bishop is currently considering other options, which will allow the police department to utilize the grant funds towards a similar goal but require a diminished monetary requirement from the city each year for maintenance.

“We talked with the grant people and they said we could adjust what we are going to do with the grant even after it is awarded,” said Bishop.

Changing the terms of the grant will require a lot of additional research and work from the police department though, including paperwork and refiling the grant proposal with a system without such a hefty maintenance cost.

Bishop is glad the council and the police department was able to find a way to accept the grant and make the grant work for Foley because everyone agreed a camera system would be a great benefit to the city.

“The whole council agreed it was a great system, a great idea but to have to spend upwards of $160,000 a year to maintain it, that is just not good business right now with the economics that we are in,” Bishop said.

Bishop is unsure what the final grant proposal will include, but he said he is looking into systems, which will have the same benefits without the recurring costs. The police department will still have $400,000 to use to implement a security system, but the how is still in question.

“We may have to curtail it in some and at least get maybe a basic system and then a year or two down the road maybe we can get another grant to expand it out a little further and keep expanding on it,” Bishop said.

Bishop also said to curtail costs the department may have to find another way to get the video coming from the cameras into the police station, and the number of cameras may have to be decreased from the number included in the original grant. Bishop said the number of cameras might have to be limited to 10, but even ten cameras will provide 10 constant eyes, which will improve safety in the city.

Bishop hopes to use this grant “just to get it up and going at this time,” with the intention to enhance the system at a later date.

Bishop thinks a system like this one will have a positive impact on what the police department can do and the safety of the citizens of Foley.

“It will be a tremendous impact,” he said. “Being able to spot suspicious activity quicker and being able to get an officer in route quicker will definitely, in my opinion, produce good results in being able to get to that spot, encounter these people before they break in or be ready to capture them when they get back out.”

Despite the changes Bishop will have to make to the grant in order for it to be feasible for Foley, he is confident there is a way to implement a surveillance system without an extremely high maintenance cost.

“We are trying to do a little homework, educate myself to understand what we can and can’t do with this system,” he said.

The department is also purchasing GPS microphones with funds from a previous COPS grant worth $225,000. The microphones will allow dispatchers to know where police officers are located even if they leave their vehicles. There are already GPS units in the police cruisers, but the new microphones have a GPS embedded in them. The grant funds will cover the cost of a GPS microphone for every patrol officer, but not every officer. Bishop said eventually, he plans to budget so everyone will have one to protect all of the officers.

“We are not doing it as a big brother thing, we are doing it as an officer safety thing. I just want to know where they are at if they call in trouble,” he said.