FY 2009 Recovery Act JAG 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 county of Columbia, through the sheriff's office, will utilize its Fiscal Year 2009 Recovery Act award to fund a portion of the Smart Cop Software package to create interoperability between county, city, and state agencies. Smart Cop is a public safety software company based in Florida and thus funds will be spent locally. With the purchase of the Smart Cop software, the Columbia County Sheriff's Office will be preserving jobs within the Smart Cop organization by increasing their sales and utilizing the smart cop staff for training purposes and to reduce the communication gap between dispatch and first responders and amongst local and state public safety agencies.

Within 12 months of the award date, the Columbia County Sheriff's Office plans to use the grant funds to purchase, train, and install the software program for use by all departments within the agency. The software package will include modules for dispatch, records, in-car, jail, case management and crime analysis, training, maps, and data conversion. Smart Cop Software also interfaces with fire and EMS software.

NCA/NCF