Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2009, $374,106)
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 city of Stamford, through the Stamford Police Department (SPD), will use the Recovery Act JAG funds to enhance several law enforcement and crime prevention programs. The first project will be to implement a Law Enforcement Career (Police Cadet) Academy at Westhill High School. The Police Cadet Academy is a long-term strategy designed to recruit local candidates to the serve on the police force. The second project will be to contract with the Stamford Partnership to enhance the Community Outreach Worker Program. The Outreach Worker Program is a crime prevention program designed to reduce crime by providing crucial resources and life skills training to both youth perpetrators and victims. Police officer overtime will be charged to the grant to allow the involvement of police officers in the Youth Boxing and Mentoring Program which is a crime prevention program designed to provide a healthy and positive alternative to gang and criminal activity for at risk youths. The fourth project will be to purchase software and hardware to upgrade the existing camera system at police headquarters. The upgrade of the existing camera system at police headquarters will be essential in order to enhance video images necessary for law enforcement investigations as well as court proceedings.
NCA/NCF