The International Association of Chiefs of Police wants to showcase the Peoria Police Department’s “best practices and leadership in law enforcement” at its annual conference to be held in Orlando (Fla.) this year. They want to produce a five-minute video that will highlight Peoria’s Armadillo and ELITE programs and show it to an audience of “up to 15,000 police chiefs from around the world.” Peoria would be one of only ten to fifteen communities showcased.

There’s just one catch: It will cost us $19,500.

Yes, it turns out that they want to showcase us, but they want us to “offset the costs of the production and other expenses.” City staff is requesting that we pay it out of Federal Asset Forfeiture funds, which according to staff will have “no impact upon either the City’s operational or capital budget.”

How can this be? Do we have a fund that can only be used for video showcases? Can this money not be used to offset other expenses in the City’s budget? Are these funds not fungible?

According to the U.S. Department of Justice website, “The Attorney General is authorized to use the Assets Forfeiture Fund to pay any necessary expenses associated with forfeiture operations such as property seizure, detention, management, forfeiture, and disposal. The Fund may also be used to finance certain general investigative expenses. These authorized uses are enumerated in 28 U.S.C. §524(c).” Looking through the list of approved expenses, a couple things cross my mind: (a) there seem to be a lot of useful, crime-fighting expenses that could be paid with these funds, and (b) I don’t see where “showcase video” is an approved expenditure, although I’m sure it falls under “training” or some miscellaneous category.

I’m all for celebrating our successes, but we are looking at a $10+ million budget deficit and potentially more officer layoffs at a time when we’re on a record pace for murders. Perhaps this request is . . . ill-timed. While I grant that it’s a relatively small amount, the accumulation of “little” expenses can (and do) make a big contribution to the deficit.