FY 2009 Justice Assistance Grant Program

The Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program (JAG) allows states and units of local governments, including tribes, to support a broad range of activities to prevent and control crime based on their own state and local needs and conditions. Grant funds can be used for state and local initiatives, technical assistance, training, personnel, equipment, supplies, contractual support, and information systems for criminal justice, including for any one or more of the following purpose areas: 1) law enforcement programs; 2) prosecution and court programs; 3) prevention and education programs; 4) corrections and community corrections programs; 5) drug treatment and enforcement programs; 6) planning, evaluation, and technology improvement programs; and 7) crime victim and witness programs (other than compensation).

The disparate jurisdictions consisting of Scioto County and the city of Portsmouth will use their Fiscal Year 2009 JAG award for the retention of law enforcement personnel and information system upgrades. The county will use their share of the award to supplement their employee payroll. The sheriff's office has had reductions in their payroll budget in 2009. Rather than lay nine employees off, the contractual employees chose to reduce their hours by two hours each week. This funding will allow the sheriff's office to supplement their payroll, thereby increasing the number of hours that employees can work. Additionally, this funding will help the sheriff's office work towards full employee strength, thereby increasing the level of service the citizens of Scioto County receive. The city will use their portion of the award to purchase two higher capacity hard drive servers for data storage. The servers will be used to store and share departmental information between the servers, in-car computers, and the Ohio Incident Based Reporting System (OIBRS). This equipment will increase officer safety and assist the law enforcement agencies in serving the general public more efficiently.

NCA/NCF