Improving Public Safety: Responding to Today's Emerging Issues

This program is funded under both the Edward Byrne Memorial Competitive Grant Program (Byrne Competitive Program) and the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program. Authorized by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2009 (Pub. L. 111-8), the Byrne Competitive Program helps local communities improve the capacity of state and local justice systems and provides for national support efforts including training and technical assistance programs strategically targeted to address local needs. The JAG Program (42 U.S.C. 3751(a)) is the primary provider of federal criminal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions, and JAG funds support all components of the criminal justice system. The JAG Program authorization also states that 'the Attorney General may reserve not more than 5 percent, to be granted to 1 or more States or units of local government, for 1 or more of the purposes specified in section 3751 of this title, pursuant to his determination that the same is necessary'(1) to combat, address, or otherwise respond to precipitous or extraordinary increases in crime, or in a type or types of crime' (42 U.S.C. 3756).

The National Initiatives: Preventing Crime Competitive Grant Program, administered by the Office of Justice Programs' (OJP) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), helps improve criminal justice systems and provides national programs and efforts such as training and technical assistance to strategically address the needs of state and local justice systems and communities.

The National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) will develop a national-scope crime prevention awareness and education campaign which will raise the awareness of the general population on crime-related topics through the use of a variety of media. They will identify and address least five topics deemed to be essential to improving public safety that are currently without adequate national awareness media resources. NCPC will also address the gap in existing national awareness of specific crime-related topics, and the need for resources that are currently insufficient or nonexistent. They will also address crime-related topics of specific populations that historically experience higher victimization rates for specific types of crime than experienced by the general population.

CA/NCF