City of Avenal Law Enforcement Program Traffic Safety and Evidence 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 Avenal plans to use their 2009 Recovery Act JAG funds to support technology improvement programs that will focus on the investigation, apprehension, and prosecution of offenders in the areas of vehicle code, graffiti, and vandalism violations. The Avenal Police Department (APD) will improve the control of vehicle traffic with a focus on school zones and major traffic arteries. APD will also improve the method of collecting and preserving evidence at crime scenes. APD's strategy to accomplish these goals consists of purchasing and utilizing technology that will include two types of speed monitoring equipment, video surveillance and graffiti detection equipment. The equipment will be monitored by APD. The traffic safety project component will purchase speed measuring devices called Stalker II Moving Directional Radar (Stalker II MDR). These devices will increase traffic citations issued by officers with Stalker II MDRs, increase the efficiency of traffic patrol units, and increase graffiti and vandalism citations and arrests.

NCA/NCF