Equipment Replacement 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 city of Osage Beach will use its Fiscal Year 2009 Recovery Act JAG award to purchase four in-car video systems and one video manager server. The use of videos will allow the officers and supervisors to critique individual performance and make recommendations to improve officer safety and relations to citizens. The videos will also assist in the prosecution of traffic violations and other offenses by providing officers with the opportunity to review incidents and to write their reports with greater efficiency and accuracy. In addition, the video server software will allow any officer to download and view videos at workstations throughout the office. Ultimately, the city anticipates that the installation of the video cameras and software will improve the overall efficiency, training, and patrol experience for the officers.

NCA/NCF