Drug Enforcement Equipment

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 town of Meeker and Rio Blanco County will use the Recovery Act JAG funds to purchase needed equipment to better enable law enforcement to curtail the use of illegal substances and improve officer safety. The equipment requested includes Nextel push to talk phones, Nikon cameras with scopes (long range surveillance), and Canon image stabilizer binoculars. The radios are necessary because the town of Meeker is a small community and the dispatch channels are monitored by many citizens in Meeker through scanners. Although no new jobs will be directly created through this request, it will improve the safety of the officers currently employed by the town and greatly assist the goal of the police department to prevent increasing illegal substance abuse through education, enforcement, and intervention programs.

NCA/NCF