The $554,756 awarded to county agencies is being distributed through the Justice Assistance Grant program.
This is the fifth year funds have been made available through the program, which uses a formula based on
violent crime rates to determine how agencies in a county split the money.
Over the past four years, Bell County agencies received $304,718 from the grant with Killeen receiving nearly two-thirds of the money and Bell County and Temple splitting the rest.
Since the grant award is formula based and every situation is unique, there is provision written into it that allows for cities and counties to negotiate disparate situations.
That’s what happened in this case. Bell County’s allotment was 10 times lower than Killeen’s, so Sheriff Dan Smith, joined by Belton and Harker Heights, contacted the Killeen Police Department to negotiate a more proportionate distribution of funds.
“The funds have been disparate every year but the amounts were so small we didn’t visit the situation,” Smith said.
The agreement calls for Killeen to give up $39,000 of its allotment, with $5,000 each going to Belton and Harker Heights and $29,000 added to the funds for the sheriff’s office.
“We came to an amicable agreement,” Jen Wesley, Belton’s interim police chief, said.
This is the first time Belton and Harker Heights have been awarded money from the program.
Smith said the sheriff’s office would likely spend its $65,942 on upgrading computer equipment in its patrol cars. Wesley said Belton would be purchasing equipment but has yet to determine specifics about its purchase.
