GRPD receives grant funds

An agreement signed by Mayor Pete Rust March 17 will bring more than $100,000 to the city’s police department.

The agreement continues a long-standing partnership between the Green River Police Department and the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation. The agreement brings $100,610 to the department’s efforts in combatting narcotics trafficking in the community.

The funds are part of a larger grant awarded to DCI through the Department of Justice’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area initiative.

Funds awarded to GRPD are used to pay the salary, overtime and benefits for a task force officer working on the DCI Southwest Drug Enforcement Team. According to a press release from the city, costs for this position are minimal. Those costs could include a small percentage of benefits if the cost is above that allowable under the grant, as well as some training and equipment needs.

Tom Jarvie GRPD chief, said this and similar grants are an integral part of the department’s narcotics enforcement efforts. Illicit drug investigations are complex and often span multiple jurisdictions.

“If we did not have the ability to devote a full-time investigator working in conjunction with other agencies to this effort, we would not be effective investigating those bringing large quantities of narcotics into our community,” Jarvie said in a press release.

Jarvie said participation in the DCI Southwest Drug Enforcement Team enables the GRPD and other team agencies to share equipment and expertise while reducing the likelihood of duplicate investigations on the same drug trafficking groups.

“Our agency has particularly benefitted over the past few years by leveraging the expertise of our Task Force Officer in training newer patrol officers on conducting street level narcotics investigations and this enables our line officers to better recognize investigative opportunities and know when and how to involve the Southwest Drug Enforcement Team in their case,” he said.

He says it is important to note that while the program is funded through the US Department of Justice, it does not make our officers federal agents. The task force officer remains an employee of the GRPD and is under GRPD supervision.

Jarvie said Task Force Officers from our agency are chosen by us, in consultation with the DCI Southwest Drug Enforcement Team Leader.

He said this partnership has worked very well for the city throughout the multiple decades it has been in place.