Cleveland Has Money Left Over From RNC Public Safety Grant

The City of Cleveland is still settling its bills from last year’s Republican National Convention but so far the city spent less on public safety than they received from the federal government.

The city received a $50 million National Special Security Event grant from the feds. They spent $43.7 million of it. Easily the biggest portion of that money, $14.5 million, went to pay for the out of town police that blanketed downtown Cleveland during the convention. Officials are still working through reimbursements for out of town police agencies.

Police, fire and Emergency Medical Services were able to keep the equipment purchased for the event, things like bicycles, chemical detectors, gas masks, bandages, trucks and ATVs, which totaled around $10 million. The unspent $6 million will go back to Washington.