Marshall County Joint 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 Marshal, city of Albertville, city of Arab, city of Boaz, and city of Guntersville will share the Recovery Act JAG award in support of their law enforcement agencies. The Marshall County Commission will serve as the fiscal agent managing the Recovery Act JAG funds. The Marshall County Sheriffs Office will provide sheriff deputies with handheld radios and microphones for deputies to increase officer safety, establish better officer communication methods across the rural areas of the Marshall County, and save potential man hours and fuel usage. Both the Albertville and the Guntersville Police Departments will equip their patrol vehicles with digital dash mobile cameras. These cameras are expected to decrease civil liability, increase officer safety and awareness, increase the ability of identification of offenders, and become a training aid for future confrontations. The Arab Police Department will equip patrol cars with laptop computers. The computers will enable the officers to spend more time in the field. In addition, the laptops will save a large amount of man hours and funds by allowing the officers to complete various tickets and reports in the field. The Boaz Police Department will provide police officers with tasers to use as a deterrent for many altercations.

NCA/NCF