Certified a police K-9 vehicle as overdose harm reduction

The FY2025 report lists a new program, North Bergen Police Department K-9 Unit, recipient Township of North Bergen (pp2 to 5). It describes the program as the purchase of a trained drug-sniffing K9 and its accessories, aimed at drug distribution. It names the primary problem as the distribution of and exposure to drugs and calls the purchase an investment toward future law enforcement activities. It adds that the vehicle needed to transport the canine was purchased through a state contract. The report files the program under the primary category Harm Reduction and Overdose Prevention, with the Schedule B strategies Prevent Misuse of Opioids, Prevent Overdose Deaths and Other Harms (Harm Reduction) and First Responders, and certifies 65,098.66 encumbered. The FY2026 report updates the program with no modifications and certifies 65,098.66 spent between 07/01/2025 and 06/30/2026 (p4). The settlement account paid Nielsen Ford of Morristown 33,522.65 for a 2025 Ford Police Interceptor Utility marked FOR K9 VEHICLE, purchase order 25-02182, check 2659, on 08/15/2025. It paid Tropic Window Tinting 31,576.01 for a K9 upfit package marked FOR POLICE VEHICLES, purchase order 25-02181, check 2671, on 10/08/2025, after a 46 percent contract discount. The two payments make 65,098.66 to the cent. Both orders were first encumbered on 03/26/2025. The money bought a police vehicle and its K9 transport equipment, not an overdose program. Exhibit E's First Responders category adds two uses to the first-responder items in sections C, D and H: education about fentanyl and other drugs, and wellness services for first responders. No listed use in C, D, H or I covers a police vehicle, and no overdose program using this vehicle is documented.