City of Casper 2009 Justice Assistance Grant

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 the city of Casper, the town of Mills, and Natrona County will use their Recovery Act JAG award to support law enforcement, make equipment purchases, and improve officer safety. The city of Casper and the town of Mills will use the Recovery Act JAG funds to support the upgrade of the mobile data system shared by their police departments as well as the police department of the city of Evansville. The wireless system also serves the fire and Emergency Medical Services within Natrona County. Costs of the upgrade beyond those covered by the grant will be borne by the city of Casper. The upgrade will substantially enhance the communication and data transmission that is used in the vehicles and in-car data terminals. With the upgrades, information from the computer system will be consistently pushed to the emergency vehicles at a real time rate. This will provide law enforcement and emergency services critical and up to date information. Natrona County will use their portion of the Recovery Act JAG funds to upgrade body armor and helmets for the multi-jurisdictional Special Response Team of the Natrona County Sheriff's Office. Their current equipment is old and in disrepair.

NCA/NCF