FY 2009 Recovery Act Justice Assistance Grant Program

This grant program is authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5) (the 'Recovery Act') and by 42 U.S.C. 3751(a). The stated purposes of the Recovery Act are: to preserve and create jobs and promote economic recovery; to assist those most impacted by the recession; to provide investments needed to increase economic efficiency by spurring technological advances in science and health; to invest in transportation, environmental protection, and other infrastructure that will provide long-term economic benefits; and to stabilize state and local government budgets, in order to minimize and avoid reductions in essential services and counterproductive state and local tax increases. The Recovery Act places great emphasis on accountability and transparency in the use of taxpayer dollars.

Among other things, it creates a new Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board and a new website ' Recovery.gov ' to provide information to the public, including access to detailed information on grants and contracts made with Recovery Act funds.

The Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program funded under the Recovery Act is the primary provider of federal criminal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions. Recovery JAG funds support all components of the criminal justice system, from multi-jurisdictional drug and gang task forces to crime prevention and domestic violence programs, courts, corrections, treatment, and justice information sharing initiatives. Recovery JAG funded projects may address crime through the provision of services directly to individuals and/or communities and by improving the effectiveness and efficiency of criminal justice systems, processes, and procedures.

Riley County will use its Fiscal Year 2009 Recovery Act Justice Assistance Grant award in the amount of $165,910 to complete numerous projects important to the delivery of critical law enforcement services. Equipment to be purchased under this grant will help to reduce crime, reduce serious traffic accidents, improve the delivery of critical information to the officers in the field, and improve the department's ability to create and retain video evidence, thereby enhancing the prosecution of offenders.

The Riley County Police Department (RCPD) plans to purchase digital in-car camera systems that will provide enhanced recordings that can be stored on a disk or a computer hard drive, significantly reducing physical storage requirements and costs associated with the recording media. In addition, the digital recordings are significantly easier to reproduce, a daily task required for prosecution purposes. RCPD also plans to purchase mobile data terminals to empower data analysis and dissemination of critical information to all who need it in a 'real- time' fashion. The system will enable all users to view calls as they come in, access easily understood maps, and access critical safety information and intelligence. Grant funds will also be used to identify crime hot spots through the development of a crime mapping function. The portion of the grant devoted to crime mapping will primarily pay for contracting professional services to provide the County with mapping technology and services, project management, application building, testing and analysis, ongoing education, training, and support. Analysis of hot spots will help the county development effective tactics to reduce crime in the area. The county will also purchase 10 hand-held radar devices designed to allow Officers to pin point a single vehicle. With the addition of these devices, RCPD is committed to increased traffic enforcement with the goal of decreasing accidents in these high traffic flow areas. Finally, funds will be used to redesign the RCPD web site, providing interactive crime statistics, a crime reporting system, and recruitment and hiring connectivity.

NCA/NCF