Enhancing Policing Capabilities - Washington County Communities

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 cities of Greenville and Leland and Washington County are disparate and have entered into an agreement to split the Recovery Act JAG award with the city of Greenville acting as the fiscal agent. The City of Greenville, through the police department, will use the grant to fund Project Safe Schools and their After School Initiatives Projects. Grant funds will be used to pay overtime for officers to run the educational projects, purchase advertising materials and equipment, and conduct training. Washington County will use their funds to increase illegal drug interdiction, improve investigative activities, and increase drug arrests and convictions. The County Sheriff's Office will use JAG funds to purchase firearms, surveillance equipment, and desktop computers for their drug task force. The city of Leland plans to use their portion of the funds to increase efficiency in offender processing by purchasing a LiveScan fingerprint system, and to reduce liability and increase public safety through the purchase of updated monitoring and radio equipment.

NCA/NCF