Southern Arizona's four border counties will receive $9.85 million

Southern Arizona's four border counties will receive $9.85 million in federal money that will allow them to continue paying law enforcement officers overtime to focus on border enforcement.

The Department of Homeland Security announced the award Friday. The grant money is to be used in a program called Operation Stonegarden that allows law enforcement agencies to pay overtime or buy equipment to help the Border Patrol's efforts, said Laura Oxley, spokeswoman for Arizona's Department of Homeland Security.
Examples of the equipment include off-road vehicles, night-vision goggles and license plate readers, to name a few.
Arizona's total is a 36 percent increase from the last time Homeland Security gave out money for Operation Stonegarden in 2006, Oxley said. That time around, the state received $7.24 million.


Pima County only received a fraction of the $17 million it requested, said Capt. Frank Duarte, commander of the Pima County Sheriff's Department Homeland Security division.
"We are grateful for the money; however, the need is so tremendous that we could have used more," Duarte said.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department plans to use the money to pay deputies overtime to patrol known drug- and people-smuggling areas of the county, something they've been doing using money received in 2006. That money ran out, though, a few months ago, he said.
Pima County's share will be divided between the Sheriff's Department, Tucson police, Sahuarita police, Marana police, South Tucson police and the Tohono O'odham Nation, Duarte said.

The Tohono O'odham Nation will receive $175,500 of the grant money, said a press release from the office of Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz.

see www.azstarnet.com/sn/metro/249946.php

Contact reporter Brady McCombs at bmccombs@azstarnet.com.