Maintaining essential services through equipment purchases

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 disparate jurisdictions consisting of Canyon County and the cities of Nampa and Caldwell will use their Recovery Act JAG award in the amount of $661,565 to improve the patrol car fleet by replacing several high mileage vehicles, to increase communications and evidence gathering capabilities through the purchase of handheld radios and personal video/audio devices, and to simplify enforcement of DUI violations by purchasing mobile alcohol breath testers. Specifically, the city of Nampa, acting as the fiscal agent, will purchase eight police cruisers and 103 VidMic personal video/audio recording units for uniformed officers to gather quality evidence and document misdemeanor, traffic accidents, and many other types of crime scenes. The city of Caldwell will purchase 700 MHz handheld radios to replace all existing radios operating in the UHF band, as well as two police cruisers and six Lifeloc alcohol testers. Canyon County Sheriff's Office will acquire eight police cruisers, three will be equipped with video monitoring systems, and one with a smart siren.

NCA/NCF