GREEN RIVER — The Green River City Council will consider accepting grant funding that would pay for an additional task force officer for the Green River Police Department.

The Green River City Council will meet Tuesday, January 18, at 7 p.m. at Green River City Hall.

According to Council documents, for more than 20 years, the Green River Police Department has received grant funding through the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) as part of the federal HIDTA program. In recent years, this funding pays the salary and majority of fringe benefits for one task force officer assigned to the DCI Southwest Drug Enforcement Team.

Due to personnel changes at the Sheriff’s Office during the past year, there is an additional open grant funded position on the task force. DCI leadership has offered this position and the funding that accompanies it to the Green River Police Department.

The police department has been allocated $171,505.52 for the two positions for calendar year 2022.

“Adding a second task force officer will necessitate adding an additional position to the police department. While the grant funding will cover the lions share of expenses for this position, it is anticipated there will be approximately $24,000 in costs that would not be chargeable to the grant,” Council documents state.

The documents go on to say that staff would be unable to effectively attack illegal drug issues at the distribution level without dedicated narcotics officers.

Additionally, by participating in major drug distribution cases in the region, the police department is also eligible for equitable sharing distributions of funds seized by the State of Wyoming as proceeds of illegal activity.

To view the full Green River City Council meeting agenda and packet, click here.