Danville police chief talks about impact from state budget cuts

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DANVILLE (WSLS 10) - The Department of Justice announced last week the federal forfeiture program will no longer be funded for the foreseeable future due to a budget cut of $1.2 billion.

It's a program police agencies across the united states use to conduct their cases

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It means police agencies will have to use money from the state.

Danville's Police Chief Phillip Broadfoot said the money from the program goes to training and sometimes equipment, without the money, it means the department will have to get creative to fund programs like night out for crime.

Eric Cropp, the General Manager of Me's Burgers and Brews thinks the money is beneficial, especially if it helps police with specialized training or how to handle a situation in the public.

"I believe the training that they need to stay on top of what is happening is a definitely a forefront thought," Cropp said.

Broadfoot said normally they receive $70,000 to $80,000 from the federal and state's forfeiture programs.

"A locality can still be impacted by this recent action by congress, what congress has done is that there are $1.2 billion worth of seized assets that were ready to be distributed and they have taken it and used it in the federal budget," Broadfoot said.

Broadfoot said part of the money normally goes to training for police officers, buying special equipment, or hosting events like national night out for crime.

He said not having the funds won't have an impact on day to day operations at the police department.

"It won't slow down investigations at all we're still going to do what we have to do," Broadfoot said.

However, community members hope in the future political leaders make a change to the budget that could help give police the training they need.