Santa Barbara County Cumulative Crime Prevention 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.

The disparate jurisdictions consisting of Santa Barbara County and the cities of Lompoc, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Goleta, and Carpinteria will use their FY 2009 Recovery Act JAG award to support personnel, purchase equipment, and increase intelligence and communications across the county. The city of Santa Barbara, serving as the fiscal agent, will use $77,721 (10%) for administrative fees and $187,808 to retain one police officer within the Beat Coordinator Program. Santa Barbara County will use $139,783 to fund a deputy senior probation officer and lease GPS units to enhance community safety through probationer tracking. The city of Lompoc will use $94,354 to replace aging equipment in existing patrol units and add an additional mobile data terminal unit. The city of Santa Maria will use $249,940 to retain one police officer for two and a half years. The city of Goleta will use $17,459 to fund overtime patrol positions for the Ellwood Bluffs area. The city of Carpinteria will use $10,141 to fund overtime for motorcycle officers to conduct increased traffic enforcement around the Carpinteria Unified School District. In addition, the cities and the county will use an additional 10% of their allocations toward the county's Enhanced Electronic Supervision Program.

NCA/NCF