Kent Police to spend traffic camera funds on jail, overtime

The Kent Police Department plans to spend up to $845,000 of school zone traffic camera funds on city jail renovations, police overtime costs, a use of force training simulator and traffic safety equipment.

The City Council’s Operations Committee approved the expenditures at its Tuesday meeting.

The school zone traffic camera fund has a balance of just more than $1 million from speeding fines over the last year from cameras at Sunrise and Neely-O’Brien elementary schools, where drivers often exceed the 20-mph speed limit. Police plan to add cameras in the fall at Meridian and Millennium elementary schools.

Kent will spend an estimated $400,000 for jail renovations, including $250,000 to replace the plumbing system; $55,000 for new security cameras; $50,000 for new control panels to open and close jail doors and monitor security cameras; and $45,000 for electrical wiring.

“We were looking to be creative to use these funds to go back in to support public safety,” Police Chief Ken Thomas said. “The jail (built in 1986) is an aging facility and we’ve had some failures of the control panel, which electronically opens and closes doors, and it created a security concern for us and a safety concern for our staff.”

Voters last fall turned down a $34 million city bond measure to build a new police headquarters as well as raise about $800,000 for jail renovations.

Thomas said the $400,000 from the traffic camera funds would cover the first phase of jail repairs but more money for additional repairs is needed down the road. The renovations will extend the life cycle of the jail for decades, according to city staff.

“I anticipate this will be a several-years project,” Thomas said about the repairs that will start this year.

Police will spend another $300,000 of the traffic camera funds to help cover overtime costs for 2015. The department has 17 officers in training who aren’t available to patrol streets but are still collecting pay and benefits.

“They don’t count as staffing on the street, however, they do receive a salary,” Thomas said about the officers in training. “We are still paying overtime to fill those slots that haven’t been filled yet by the officers out on the street.”

The unsolved baby shooting murder case has caused more than $50,000 in unanticipated overtime costs with five of the department’s 18 detectives assigned to the case.

The department plans to spend nearly $100,000 on a use of force training simulator to provide a wide range of realistic scenarios that enhance the effectiveness of officers. The training will help officers decide when to shoot or don’t shoot, when to use force or deescalate a situation, how to handle emotionally disturbed or impaired people and when to use less lethal weapons (such as a Taser).

The Washington State Patrol recently bought a similar simulator for training its troopers, Thomas said.

“They are very realistic scenarios that can be controlled by an instructor with a laptop computer on a video screen so based upon the actions of the officer the instructor can put in various responses by the suspect they are dealing with,” Thomas said. “It’s all based upon teaching judgment. … It’s the opinions of many that these types of use of force training simulators are the very best tool available to teach judgment for officers dealing with deadly force encounters in our communities.”

Another expenditure includes $34,000 for traffic safety equipment, mainly radar signs and trailers that show the speeds of vehicles and encourages drivers to slow down. Crews will place the signs at Meadow Ridge and Springbrook elementary schools because of safety concerns at those two locations.

Police also plan to spend $11,000 on a document management system to archive important documents outside of police case reports such as department policies and procedures.