The city council on Thursday set aside $25 million to cover its expenses in preparation for the Republican National Convention.
The money — equal to half the $50 million Congress has earmarked for convention security costs — will pay for everything from armored vehicles to hotel rooms for visiting police officers.
Uncle Sam will reimburse the city after the convention.
"We don't know specifically what we'll need and what the federal government will approve," said Assistant Police Chief Marc Hamlin, who is heading up convention security preparations. "There's a lot of guesstimations right now."
In recent weeks, the city council has approved nearly $4.5 million in convention-related purchases. The list includes a $1.2 million electronic system for helicopter-based surveillance, a $273,000 armored vehicle and up to $2 million for closed-circuit cameras.
The latest expense, more than $878,000, was approved Thursday to reserve 1,500 hotel rooms for out-of-town police officers the city is recruiting to help patrol downtown.
Hamlin wouldn't identify the hotels, but he said they will be in the area. Officers won't be traveling from Lakeland or Orlando to patrol Tampa, he said.
Hamlin has said the city expects to hire 3,000 outside officers to supplement Tampa's 1,000 officers and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office's 1,100 deputies. Hamlin said a few districts have offered officers. He declined to identify them.
Hamlin has said most local officers will continue to patrol the turf they know best, leaving the out-of-towners to do much of the heavy lifting downtown.
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