Creating and Preserving Law Enforcement Jobs 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 city of Somerville, through the Somerville Police Department (SPD), will use its Fiscal Year 2009 Recovery Act JAG award to support the Creating and Preserving Law Enforcement Jobs Program. The first project will be to create a new part-time (19 hour/wk) Victim Advocate position in the Somerville Police Department Family Services Unit. The SPD will work with Somerville's local non-profit domestic violence agency to recruit and screen candidates for the Victim Advocate position. The Victim Advocate will help SPD meet the goal of enhancing the quantity and quality of its domestic violence services. The second project will be to purchase and install a new fingerprint reader and the SPD's first Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). The SPD will purchase an IDENTIX Digitized Fingerprint Reader and an AFIX Tracker Gold AFIS. The SPDs current fingerprint reader is nine years old and is non-functioning. The SPD does not have an AFIS. The SPD staff are currently expending approximately 30 extra hours per week dealing with manual fingerprinting. The city of Somerville is facing a projected reduction in revenue of $11.4 million by the end of Fiscal Year 2010. The SPD cannot continue to maintain current policing levels while also paying for the additional time needed to take, process, and seek matches for manual fingerprints. The new fingerprint reader and AFIS will enable SPD to allocate staff time more effectively.

NCA/NCF