Rincon City Recovery Act JAG Project

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 Rincon will use the Recovery Act JAG funds to purchase digital cameras for the City of Rincon Police Department. The cameras will record traffic stops and other encounters with the public. The videos from the cameras will provide an unbiased view of encounters and be used as training tools for new officers and in-service trainings. The officers will be trained on the use of the cameras and the related software and will have unlimited phone support when they are in need of technical assistance. The officers will benefit from using incidents recorded by the cameras as real-life teaching tools. The cameras will hold the officers accountable for their conduct and provide digital record of traffic stops and encounters with the public.

NCA/NCF