FY 2009 Justice Assistance Grant 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 disparate jurisdictions consisting of the city of Trinidad and Las Animas County will share the Recovery Act JAG funds in the amount of $21,440 to provide an interagency data sharing system. The city of Trinidad, serving as the fiscal agent, will procure all necessary equipment to be used throughout the county. The data sharing system will allow file sharing between the Trinidad Police Department and Las Animas County Sheriff's Office. The main goal of the project is to increase the effectiveness of reports generated by both agencies. By allowing each agency access to the dispatch center files, officers will be able to complete reports in a more effective and timely fashion. This file-sharing will also allow both agencies to access booking photos of all individuals that have been booked into the Las Animas County Jail, which will be a benefit when searching for suspects and also to create line-ups for witnesses.

NCA/NCF