Last week, the Escambia Children’s Trust failed to pass Escambia Sheriff Chip Simmons’ request $432,501 for Movie Nights ($40,000), Public Service Announcements ($50,000), Virtual Reality Training Simulator ($152,201.14) and a Real Time Crime Center ($190,000).
The Sheriff’s Office approach was they do “more than most” with children in the community and deserve Trust dollars.
During the Trust board’s discussion of the request, board member David Peaden asked Ronnie Rivera of the sheriff’s office to come to the podium to answer questions. Rivera and Chief Deputy Tommi Lyter didn’t plan to speak – “We feel like documents and what we do in the community sort of backs up what we’ve already said,” but he would answer any questions.
Peaden asked if the rumor that the Trust staff begged Sheriff Simmons to submit a proposal was true.
“‘Begged’ it is a strong, strong word. I will say that they reached out to us. That is true,” said Rivera.
Peaden asked, “Our staff reached out to you and encouraged you to do what?”
Rivera said, “To look into the funding opportunities of the Children’s Trust.”
The Trust’s Executive Director Tammy Greer injected that she had met with several leaders. “What we discussed was some of the things that are happening in other communities and partnerships between Children’s Services Councils and sheriff’s departments, so that we could introduce the Children’s Services Council here in Escambia County. We’ve done that with anybody who called us.”
Greer added that she approached the sheriff about the Trust helping to fund his Blazer Academy. However, she said, “Do we tell people in the community that they can apply for funding from the Children’s Trust? Absolutely. Do we tell them that they’re going to get funded? No. I absolutely tell everyone that I talk to that it is up to the board, but I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I do tell people when we meet with them that they are welcome to apply for funding and we do talk about the kinds of partnerships that are in place in other parts of the state.”
Greer said, “We did make them aware that there was an Out-of-School Time RFP that was available because they have the Blazer Academy, which we thought was an out-of-school time program.”
Note: The sheriff’s office didn’t apply as part of the Out-of-School Time RFP. The agency applied as sole-source request and did not include the Blazer Academy.
Greer told Rivera, “You were not told to apply for unsolicited.” And Rivera backed down: “Not anything specific, but look into the funding, look into what the Children’s Trust may have to offer. That parallels with what we do at the Sheriff’s office. Obviously the Sheriff’s office does a wonderful thing for children in Escambia County. In fact, we do more than most, in fact.”
Peaden asked Rivera about the Law Enforcement Trust Fund (LET Fund), which is assets received in drug seizures.”That’s drug money or seizures that y’all get to keep and spend on certain programs?”
Rivera replied, “Yes, sir” but did not elaborate. Chief Lyter said the fund doesn’t have a big budget but didn’t share its budget.
Peaden pointed out that initially Sheriff Simmons had said that his foundation would be paying for movie nights. Chief Lyter said the $40,000 would be to expand the program – but gave no specifics.
Chair Stephanie White questioned how the Virtual Reality Simulator and Real Time Crime Center fit the state statute governing the trust.
Chief Lyter said, “Specifically with the Real Time Crime Center, school safety is certainly a big concern. I actually spent all day at Mobile at the Realtime Crime Center to see how it ties in and think the numbers just over a 1,700 children are victims of crimes. That’s just this last year, 1700. That’s a lot of victims. A lot of our victim, victimized online. So it’s an opportunity with the realtime crime center, with the software packages that they have to track a lot of that stuff to divide it to identify potential victims. And then certainly the small percentage, 10%, 20% of the kids that actually cause problems to be able to identify those early on. So it ties directly to school safety.”
He said the Virtual Reality Simulator will have 3D images of all of public schools. “So if we’re training at say any one of the elementary schools, high schools, middle school, we can actually pull up that school and we have the actual layup of it.”
He said the simulator will also cover interactions with those children. “So to be able to train in that virtual reality aspect and pull up that age of the child and then get those reactions is part of it.”
The chief didn’t say how much of the crime center or simulator would be devoted to children or explain why the Trust should foot the entire cost of each.
He was asked about the Public Service Announcements and why the Trust should fund them.
“I think the idea with it is to leverage the sheriff and all of the social media outreach that we have,” said Chief Lyter. “We call them in law enforcement, ‘trusted messengers.’ Do you have somebody that you trust in the community? – Whether it’s a community leader, whether it’s a pastor or somebody that you with our message and we step back and let them speak for us, for lack of a better word. So when you look at the PSA, it’s just that it’s to use our leverage, our social media and our agency and our image and everything that we’re doing and to kind of further that message.”