Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2008, $654,710)
The Edward Byrne Memorial Discretionary Grants Program (Byrne Discretionary Program) helps local communities improve the capacity of local justice systems and provides for national support efforts. This project is authorized and funded through a line item in the FY 08 Congressional Budget. Funds should be used for purposes recommended by Congress.
The Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department will use the grant funds to support the Automated Regional Information Exchange System (ARIES) project. ARIES is a regional intelligence system that 'reads' different local, state, and federal criminal databases. ARIES offers a crime watch capability that enables first responders to view all open, or close, high-priority Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) calls on large wall maps projected from the diverse CAD databases, which is refreshed every 60 seconds. Currently 62 agencies in four counties and the California Department of Justice are able to query each others' records. The grant award will expand the system to the contiguous counties of Alameda, Solano, and San Joaquin.
NCA/NCF