An RFP from the Montana Board of Crime Control was posted in late December, 2010. The Police Department would like to pursue this subgrant for Domestic Violence training and continuation of the “Domestic Violence Investigator” program for the 10th year. The amount for this grant totals $62,862.00. The application is due by February 18, 2011.  Staff is asking Council’s approval to submit the application and finalize the grant.

The City Council may:

• Approve application submittal and finalization of STOP Violence Against Women Act; or
• Do not approve application submittal and finalization of STOP Violence Against Women Act.

This grant requires a 25% match of hard and/or soft match. The City of Billings will contribute approximately $18,000.00, which includes a hard match of $1,600 and a soft match of $16,400.00. The hard match will be included in the FY 12 Training budget and consists of the City paying $1,300 toward the instructor cost and $300 for refreshments for the training. The soft match includes supervision, data analysis, and case management of the grant; use of patrol vehicle, telephone cost, office space for the DV Investigator on the second floor of City Hall; and use of the Police training facility at PD1 for domestic violence investigator training.

Through the cooperative efforts of the Police Department and the City Attorney’s office, a significant need for more intensive investigation was identified in domestic violence cases. Once again, the Police Dept. would like to apply for a STOP Violence Against Women Act grant. In 2005, the scope of the grant changed from focusing solely on training, to include funds to pay for follow-up investigation of domestic violence cases being prosecuted through the City Attorney’s Office.

This change has allowed the city prosecutors to have Billings Police Department Officers available specifically for domestic violence follow-up investigation and case management that was previously unavailable due to manpower restrictions.

Grant money is requested to pay officers to work as domestic violence follow-up investigators in the form of overtime assignments (during their off-time). These investigators are selected from a pool of volunteer officers who have previously received domestic violence training offered through prior Domestic Violence grants funded by the Montana Board of Crime Control.

For the past nine years the Billings Police Department’s Training Division has applied for the Domestic Violence grant through the Board of Crime Control. For the past five years this grant has included funds to pay Domestic Violence Investigators. This addition of manpower has proven to be very helpful to both the victims of domestic violence as well as the city prosecutors.