Sheriff's office receives funds from state

Seneca County Sheriff's Office received $25,164.30 in federal grant money Tuesday. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced that nearly $5 million in federal Edward J. Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants (JAG) have been awarded to help communities prevent and control crime. "Our office is devoted to seeking alternative funding from both State and Local Grant funding to assist with projects to improve our office's ability to serve the citizens of Seneca County," said Sheriff Fred Stevens. "Federal and State Grant funding awards like this lessens the burden on our local funding to utilize on other projects." In total, 149 projects were funded in 57 counties. The grants were administered by the Ohio Department of Public Safety's Office of Criminal Justice Services (OCJS). The Seneca County Sheriff's Office solicited funding assistance for the project to upgrade the radios at their office from an analog system to a digital system to improve communications between area Law Enforcement throughout Seneca County. JAG funds are designed as seed money to establish new and promising programs that improve the criminal justice system. "Numerous years back, a project was started to move all Law Enforcement radio communications in Seneca County from analog (which is an older system) to digital," said Seneca County Chief Deputy Charles Boyer. "Clear communication is critical to operating efficiently and digital two-way radios offer many advantages compared to analog communications including, enhanced voice quality, increased radio capacity, better signal coverage and extended battery life." "For some reason (beyond my knowledge and before my time), the project was started but was not finished," he continued. "The Fostoria Police Department and Tiffin Police Department continued with the project and eventually went fully digital towards the end of 2021. The moment their agencies went digital, we lost cruiser-to-cruiser and agency-to-agency communications in the field with those agencies." Boyer went on to say that through collaboration with other area agencies, the organization realized not being able to communicate with the other agencies created dangerous situations for the county's law enforcement deputies and officers. Due to that realization, the Sheriff's Office immediately attempted to seek alternative funding from federal and state grants. Stevens then approached the Seneca County Commissioners with the issue and about funding for the project. The commissioners agreed with the necessity. They then approved the funding for the Sheriff's Office and Seneca County EMA to upgrade the analog system to digital. "Just upgrading our office to digital communications was approximately a $60,000 project but we were able to offset some of that with the grant we just received," he explained. "We are hopeful to get the equipment ordered and there isn't a huge delay in getting the equipment. The hope is that our office can go digital by the end of the first quarter of 2023." JAG funds may be used for state and local initiatives, technical assistance, strategic planning, research and evaluation (including forensics), data collection, training, personnel, equipment, forensic laboratories, supplies, contractual support and criminal justice information systems. The competitive grant process solicited grant proposals from state agencies, non-profit organizations, colleges, universities and other criminal justice-related agencies from throughout the state.