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Midland County accepts $2.5M TAG grant; court approves budget amendment, hardware purchase and two grant-funded analyst positions
Summary
After acknowledging a $2.5 million TAG grant, the commissioners approved a matching budget amendment, authorized purchase of court-ordered cell-phone locating hardware (about $500,000) for TAG operations and created two grant-funded analyst positions.
The Midland County Commissioners' Court acknowledged receipt of a $2,500,000 TAG (anti-gang) grant and approved a related $2.5 million budget amendment to record the revenue and establish spending lines.
S9 (identified in the record and referred to by others as the sheriff) described enforcement results attributed to the TAG unit — the presentation listed 28 arrests, 39 firearms removed from the street, quantities of narcotics seized (including figures for marijuana, THC products, cocaine, meth and fentanyl) and cash seizures — and said the TAG unit needed funding to continue operations.
Philip Parkin, who introduced himself as the administrator for the Texas Anti-Gang Center in the Permian Basin, explained the court-ordered-capable cell-phone locating hardware the TAG unit is requesting under the grant. Parkin said the equipment cost is about $500,000 and called it a regional asset that would also be available to nearby agencies in the Permian Basin.
The court approved three connected actions by voice vote: (1) acknowledgment of the $2.5 million TAG grant; (2) a budget amendment to move $2,500,000 from revenue to expense line items; and (3) purchase of the cognate cell-phone hardware using grant funds. The court also approved creation of two positions — a senior criminal analyst and a criminal analyst — to be funded 100% by the TAG grant and effective immediately. Salary grades for the positions were discussed on the record and clarified during the motion.
Why it mattered: County officials framed the TAG investment as supporting enforcement capacity, evidence-gathering and regional cooperation. The hardware and positions carry material budgetary and operational implications because the equipment is costly and the new staff positions will be grant-funded but integrated into TAG operations.
What’s next: Staff will post the budget amendment in the system and proceed with procurement and onboarding steps; details such as maintenance agreements, regional-access terms for the equipment and specific vendor contract language were discussed in the meeting but not included in the motion record.
