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Goldsboro council backs police grant applications and discusses 10% SRO pay incentive
Summary
The council authorized applications for two Department of Justice grants — a $175,000 community policing micro grant and a $63,290 school violence prevention grant (which requires a 25% match) — and heard Chief Pete West propose a 10% SRO pay incentive to recruit and retain school resource officers.
Goldsboro City Council on Tuesday authorized the police department to apply for two federal grant opportunities and discussed a staffing incentive for school resource officers.
Chief Pete West told the council the department will request funds through the U.S. Department of Justice COPS 2025 community policing micro grant, noting “the total amount of the funding available under this opportunity is a $175,000” and that the department intends to request that full amount to buy a resource-router patrol-management platform, license-plate readers and expand neighborhood-watch and community-engagement programs. West said the COPS micro grant requires no local match.
Council also approved a staff recommendation to apply for the DOJ School Violence Prevention Program. Chief West said the department intends to seek $63,290 from that program and cautioned that the award carries a 25% local match requirement: “this grant…has a requirement of a 25% match, which means that the city will be responsible…$15,822.50.” City Manager Livingston told council the city set aside contingency funds in the current budget to cover required matches when necessary.
During discussion on related public-safety staffing, West outlined plans to expand SRO coverage from two full-time SROs toward a goal of 5–8 officers in city schools. He proposed a personnel incentive to aid recruitment and retention: “my suggestion…to give a 10% salary increase for an SRO,” which West estimated would cost the city about $28,000 to apply to the current group of three SROs and noted that Wayne County reimbursement for three SROs is approximately $110,000.
Council members voiced support for the grant-seeking strategy and for measures to restore SRO coverage. No final ordinance or permanent salary increase was adopted at the meeting; the SRO pay proposal was presented for discussion and related funding for personnel adjustments was included in an operating budget amendment later approved by council.
The council approved both grant applications by voice/hand vote after the presentations; the COPS micro grant application was authorized without a local match and the school-violence application was authorized with council acceptance of the anticipated 25% match funding approach.
