Gladstone police to seek $50,000 state grant for rifle plates, UTV and GPS tracking darts

The Gladstone Police Chief told the City Council on July 28 that the city plans to apply for roughly $50,000 from a Missouri Blue Shield grant program to buy personally assigned rifle plates, a utility task vehicle for parks and events, and a StarChase GPS tracking system for patrol cars. The chief said the city—xpects to file the grant application by Sept. 2 and would return to council at a future meeting with the formal application as an agenda item.

The chief said the Blue Shield program was a state-allocated grant pool of about $10 million for local law enforcement; Gladstone—een notified its share is about $50,000. He recommended three purchases that he said align with the council—rime prevention, traffic enforcement and recruitment and retention priorities: rifle plates that protect against rifle rounds, one utility off-road vehicle (UTV) for park and event use, and a StarChase vehicle-mounted GPS tagging system to reduce risky pursuits.

The rifle plates would be Point Blank Body Armor Omega-series plates the chief said fit officers—xternal carriers, weigh under a pound, and cost about $400 each. He proposed outfitting uniform patrol officers at…