For the last three years, the Page Police Department has been the beneficiary of continued financial support from Page City Council. Primarily due to Page’s tourism renaissance, the organization has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment and infrastructure upgrades since Chief of Police Frank Balkcom Sr. took the reins in November 2014.
Some of the most notable have included a license plate reader, new patrol trucks, new body cameras, improved computer software and hardware and a patrol boat donated by the Arizona Fish and Game Department.
The PD also hopped on board with a national military surplus transfer program last year.
Called The Law Enforcement Support Office, the federal program is an offshoot of a law enacted in 1997 called the Defense Authorization Act, which allowed the U.S. Department of Defense to relinquish surplus or otherwise unused military equipment to law enforcement agencies at little to no cost.
Items available to departments include clothing and office supplies, tools, medical and rescue equipment, vehicles, rifles and others small arms.
According to information available online, of all the excess equipment provided through the program, only 5 percent are weapons and less than 1 percent are tactical vehicles.

Last week, Page City Council approved another $90,000 worth of upgrades in the form of 32 new portable radios, an upgrade to the department’s new computer-assisted dispatch program and seven new in-car computer systems.
The radios will be purchased through Glen Canyon Communications for a total of $37,235. GCC has provided the Page PD with its radios and services for decades now, Lt. Tim Lange told council.
“The biggest advantage is they are available 24/7. They can be on scene at 3 a.m. and within minutes if we need them,” he added.
Lange noted how the department’s current radios struggle to receive any signal on some parts of Highway 89 and down near Lake Shore Drive where the department has jurisdiction. Often, officers are forced to stay near their vehicles to use the onboard radios in these areas to relay information back to dispatch. The new radios alleviate the issue, Lange said.
The CAD upgrade will cost $20,000 for five years of service. According to Lt. Larry Jones, the new software will allow officers to automatically upload and catalogue video from their body camera. With an average of 18,000 to 20,000 calls for service each year, and because officers are required to turn the cameras on during any interaction with a citizen, Jones said he believed the timesaving potential of the upgrade will add up quickly.
For $33,000, the department will also receive seven new onboard patrol computers. The computers will utilize Verizon LTE Internet access and have onboard GPS trackers. Primarily, this allows officers to keep track of other units in real time on a map, and look up information such as running a license plate without having to contact dispatch.
The impetus for virtually all of the upgrades, police administrators have told council, is dated and archaic equipment.
Balkcom described all of the upgrades as “performance-based managing tools.” He added they will allow officers to be more engaged and spend more time on patrol as they either automate or save time on many of the day-to-day and procedural duties of officers.
“It’s all been long overdue in my opinion,” Balkcom told council.
The department has requested all of the improvements through Page City Council, and has been granted approval for every request.
The new upgrades come alongside several new department hires as well, including three young local recruits who jumped on board with the PD this May.