Crime Prevention and Efficient Evidence/Data Collection

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 Winter Garden will use the Recovery Act JAG funds to purchase software and equipment for the Winter Garden Police Department. Software purchases include the software and maintenance of two systems. One will provide officers with field access and the ability to print subject information and create a photo line-up from patrol vehicles, and the other will allow digital images and audio and video recordings to be maintained by protecting them from accidental deletion, tracking access to the files, and authenticating the files. Software will also be purchased to allow video files to be stored and retrieved by case or incident number.

Equipment will be purchased for a youth Driving Under the Influence program that teaches youth the effects drugs or alcohol have on their ability to perform simple functions. Other equipment items that will be purchased include swipe readers in patrol vehicles that will read information on drivers' licenses, and covert audio and video equipment for undercover operations, prostitution stings, and street drug enforcement activities. The city of Winter Garden will also purchase radar recorders that will capture traffic data and generate reports, thus allowing police to focus on proven areas of violations.

These purchases will allow Winter Garden police officers to save time on data collection and on submitting or retrieving evidence for criminal cases. The data collected will then be used to enhance the planning of resource deployment.

NCA/NCF