2007/06/13 Council Agenda Packet

4 PROGRAM NARRATIVE Introduction The City of Everett is a full-service municipal government agency which provides critical public safety and other vital services to a population of about 101,000 citizens. Under the direction of Mayor Ray Stephanson, Chief James I. Scharf commands the Everett Police Department (E.P.D.) which consists of a staff of over 197 uniformed officers and 44 civilian support personnel. Over the last several years, the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program has been a key element in assisting the E.P.D. in the acquisition and implementation of law enforcement equipment and technology to further our mission of providing the highest level of effective and efficient police services to those who reside, work, and/or choose to spend their leisure time in our City. Thus, the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program has become a key resource for providing important tools and technology which are not able to receive funding support via the City's budget. Statement of Current Need City budget resources are unavailable to provide support for certain types of equipment and software applications that are needed for the police department to more efficiently and effectively handle the recovery, processing, storage, retrieval, archiving and back-up of computer forensic evidence. In addition, there is a need to enhance our video/digital imaging forensic capability and provide for integrated forensic evidence networking, storage, delivery, archiving and back-up systems. Finally, we need to implement audio/video recording systems in our polygraph and interview areas in order to provide secure and reliable verification of critical interactions which, regularly, take place in those key areas. 17