Walker County / City of Huntsville Recovery Act JAG

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.

Walker County and the city of Huntsville are listed as disparate jurisdictions on the FY 22009 Recovery Act JAG local allocation chart. Walker County will serve as the fiscal agent to administer funds for both jurisdictions. Each entity will receive half of the award amount to procure law enforcement equipment.

Walker County, through the Sheriff's Office, will utilize its portion of the funds to: purchase video forensics equipment to increase identification and arrest capabilities; procure a versatile speech recognition software (to be placed on field computers and used by field officers) in order to save time when entering reports and to allow more time in performing case investigation follow-up - the software has the ability to add law enforcement vocabulary to the system; utilize GIS systems to track field units and enable analysis of crime patterns; and procure in-car computers to permit field officers to obtain and transmit RMS data directly to their vehicles.

The city of Huntsville, through the police department, will use its portion of grant funds to purchase computers, laptop printers, and scanners to enhance the productivity and abilities of field personnel and investigators via electronic means, and surveillance and recording equipment and systems to be utilized for covert operations by the Problem Directed Policing Unit.

NCA/NCF