Police departments across the nation are sharing $1-billion of federal stimulus money to get more officers on the streets. But more than 20 local departments are banned from tapping those funds, including one in west Georgia.
The city manager of Manchester, Danny Walton, says his police department is feeling the pain:
The city manager of Manchester, Danny Walton, says his police department is feeling the pain:
"It just really hurts us not being able to get the stimulus money."
That’s because more than a decade ago, federal investigators found some departments across the country misused money from a Clinton-era program to put more police officers on the streets. Now, the Obama-administration is punishing the departments that erred by holding-back stimulus funding.
Walton says Manchester’s police department had bookkeeping problems, but to penalize them now is unfair:
"Sometimes we’ll go through six or seven officers a year, and when you try to backtrack that many years back...they didn’t say anything about it till two years ago, which was 10 years later. Trying to backtrack all that it’s just about impossible."
Walton says Manchester lost track of about $50,000 in grant money.
Without stimulus dollars, the city might have to consider layoffs—or worse—for its 19-member police department.
