Using $45,000 in unclaimed currency, the Redwood City Police Department bought ballistic shields and a new blood drying evidence cabinet — though Councilmember Chris Sturken is questioning if this is where the money should be directed.
State law requires any money turned into police by civilians to be held for at least three years.
“There is a process we go through to make the public aware that there is currency that has been recovered,” said police Capt. Ashley Osborne at a City Council budget discussion Monday, Feb. 26. “Over a period of time it accumulates and once it reaches a certain accumulation we work with the city to account for it and work with the finance department on that and then we convert it for police department use.”
Osborne said the purchases included visibility windows on the shields, which are an expensive addition but help officer’s capability to deal with critical incidents and protect themselves as well as the community. The blood drying evidence cabinet is critical for the preservation of evidence related to violent crimes, he said.
Sturken said he raised this concern because he believes that this money ultimately belongs to the community.
“This is potentially people’s rightful property,” Sturken said. “I wanted to bring attention to that and see if there was an opportunity for that money to be repurposed for the community versus for a city department’s budget.”
Deputy City Manager Jennifer Yamaguma said in an email this unclaimed currency has historically gone to the Police Department because they are “responsible for counting, storing, securing and tracking the cash before it is converted.”
She said she believes this is common practice in other cities as well.
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As an alternative, Sturken suggested the money could be allocated elsewhere such as the Purposeful Action Creation and Engagement program — a collaboration between the Pal Center and Redwood City to create safe spaces and job opportunities for Redwood City youth.
State funding for the PACE program is currently frozen due to budget restraints and therefore it does not have sufficient funds to keep the program going forward, Sturken said.
“I wanted to suggest that we make a one time transfer of that $45,000 of unclaimed currencies for the PACE program, instead, to help us to contribute to our council priorities, which includes children and youth,” Sturken said at the council meeting.
The suggestion to further consider where this money should be allocated in the future was supported by Vice Mayor Lissette Espinoza-Garnica, while others on the council said it should be discussed at a later date with more preparation.
“I’m very uncomfortable with us, ad hoc, seat of our pants, right this minute, randomly saying we want to redirect $45,000 from here to there, when we see the work staff does in great detail and in good faith with so many more data points than what we have,” Councilmember Kaia Eakin said.
Mayor Jeff Gee also said that he would like to see the numbers for what it takes to run the PACE program before he would consider any sort of redirection of funds.
Sturken said he would like to talk about this again and said he believes Gee and City Manager Melissa Stevenson Diaz sounded open to continuing the conversation.
“I would say we have certainly heard the council’s interest in the program and that’s maybe an example of one we come back to with a recommended budget, looking at where there are opportunities for the city to contribute beyond what we already contribute — which is substantial,” Diaz said.
(1) comment
So based on this article, Councilmember Sturken is more interested in getting his piece of the pie rather than returning money to their owners? Is anyone surprised? I guess Sturken is okay with losing the votes of Redwood City law enforcement and their supporters. And I have to ask, how hard does the city really try to find the owners of unclaimed money? It’s only a losing proposition for the city. Anyone with unclaimed money, check to see if you have unclaimed money and then file early and often (?) and help reduce this $45k as close to zero as possible.
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