Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2009, $2,789,418)
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 and County of Denver will use the $2,789,418 in Recovery Act JAG funding to support a citywide plan that will address pressing needs in the areas of law enforcement, prosecution, prevention, and corrections. Grant funds will be used to retain members of the citywide DNA cold case team to enable them to continue their work in prosecuting homicide and sex assault cases. Together, the team will investigate and potentially prosecute an additional 75 cold cases. Grant funds will be used to hire a staff psychiatrist and expand the Sheriff's Department's Juvenile Inmate Treatment Program services to serve the growing juvenile population. Anticipated outcomes include a reduction in fights, assaults, and use of force incidents. Grant funds will be used to hire a program coordinator for the Denver Safe City Office - Gang Reduction Initiative of Denver (GRID). The coordinator position will help implement the GRID and facilitate the efforts of GRID's three leadership teams, ensure program implementation, and oversee the program evaluation. Grant funds will be used to retain Denver Police Department surveillance technicians and replace aging mobile data terminals. Eight technicians will be retained to provide real time monitoring of wireless cameras, 24 hours a day. This project will increase the safety of the public and of the officers that respond on-scene. Grant funds will also be used to purchase and install 130 laptop computers in police fleet cars. These computers increase efficiencies in the field and significantly decrease the time required to process a report in the field and route it to a detective.
NCA/NCF