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 town of Speedway will use its Fiscal Year 2009 Recovery Act JAG award to install three public safety cameras in their town. The cameras will be placed in areas of the town based upon crime trends and UCR reporting. Public safety cameras alert police to potential signs of trouble expediting response time to criminal incidents. The cameras can provide an additional safety net to officers when responding to calls in the monitored areas. These cameras can also assist the police with the gathering of important evidence to help solve crimes and can be assessed wirelessly from a few blocks away so that members of the department can monitor 'high crime' areas from a distance without their location being compromised. The main objective of this project would be to increase the safety of the town's residents and to lower the number of crimes committed under the seven major UCR categories. The benefits to the community would be a greater sense of safety and a higher quality of living for residents of the Speedway.

NCA/NCF