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 town of Orange will use their Recovery Act JAG funds to replace failing equipment that is used everyday by the town of Orange Police Department. Five new workstations will be purchased with the Recovery Act funds. The current computers are over seven years old and are used specifically for the department's Criminal Records Management System and data processing functions. The current computers are beginning to malfunction, causing a potential loss of information as well as an increased loss of confidence in the equipment by employees. Ten digital cameras and 20 secure digital cards will be purchased for patrol officers. The cameras that the department currently utilizes are the Sony Mavica which have a 3.5 inch floppy disk drive. These cameras were put in service approximately seven years ago, and many of the cameras' floppy disk drives are beginning to fail, causing evidence collection problems and a decline in confidence with equipment on the part of the officers who have to use them. One Electrostatic dust print lifters, commonly used in crime scene processing to lift latent and patent shoe impressions from a variety of porous and nonporous surfaces, will be purchased. Five copies of Microsoft Office 2007 for the mobile data terminal laptops, which will be installed in police patrol vehicles, will also be purchased.

NCA/NCF