FY 2009 Recovery Act JAG Program

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 Crittenden County and the cites of West Memphis, Earle, and Marion will use their Fiscal Year 2009 JAG award in the amount of $434,528 to provide officer safety, purchase equipment, and increase communications capabilities across the county. The grant funds requested from the Recovery Act JAG grant will be used for various programs within each disparate jurisdiction. West Memphis will use a large portion of their allocated funds to purchase equipment to better enable the department to serve the community. The purchase of new radio equipment will enable the officers to better receive and transmit emergency information. Other special equipment is being purchased to aid in the training and equipping of officers to respond to emergency situations. Surveillance equipment is being purchased that will greatly enhance the ability for undercover operations to become successful. Marion is purchasing a computer server with their funds to better enable them to efficiently gather and store information. They are also purchasing training equipment that will be used at their local firing range by several other departments in the county and surrounding counties. The city of Earle is purchasing radio equipment and officer equipment to better aid their officers to respond to all types of emergency situations. Crittenden County is purchasing various pieces of law enforcement equipment to aid their officers in the response to evidence at crimes scenes as they are called to emergency locations with their funding amount. The money requested from the Recovery Act JAG program will quickly be put back into the community through the purchasing of equipment and technicians who will be providing services and installing the equipment will be spending that same money in these communities while performing their tasks. The ripple effect of that money being made available will keep jobs for the citizens of these jurisdictions and further the recovery of each community.

NCA/NCF