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 disparate jurisdictions consisting of the cities of Fort Wayne and New Haven and Allen County will share the Recovery Act JAG award in the amount of $620,326. The city of Fort Wayne, serving as the fiscal agent, will use their portion of the funds ($554,816) to stimulate the economy and purchase an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) with the palm print identification capability system upgrade. The AFIS ensures the full employment of three full-time certified latent print examiners. The city of New Haven will use their portion of funding ($18,897) to purchase one eletronic citation ticketing system, eight digital high-resolution cameras, two ballistic protective shields, and batteries for 800 MHz radios. Allen County will use their portion of the funds ($46,613) to purchase nine Motorola HK1322 ML910 notebooks, nine docking stations, and nine charge guards for county law enforcement.

NCA/NCF