Rural Crime Intelligence Support Program

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) solicits applications for initiatives which assist law enforcement in rural states and rural areas. The program helps rural states and rural areas to prevent and combat crime, especially drug-related crime, and provides for national support efforts, including training and technical assistance programs strategically targeted to address rural needs.

The Assistance to Rural Law Enforcement to Combat Crime and Drugs Program, administered by BJA, helps rural states and rural areas prevent and combat crime, especially drug-related crime, and provides for national support efforts, including training and technical assistance programs strategically targeted to address rural needs. In addition, priority consideration will be given to local law enforcement agencies in rural areas where the unit of local government is not eligible to receive a direct allocation from the Recovery Act Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program or received a direct allocation that was $50,000 or less. Applicants were invited to submit a proposal under any one of the following categories to: (1) combat rural crime; (2) improve rural law enforcement investigations; (3) enhance rural detention and jail operations; (4) facilitate rural justice information sharing; or (5) develop a national training and technical assistance program.

Under Category 4, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), through their Division of Law Enforcement, plans to use its award to create a Rural Crime Intelligence Support Program that provides assistance to sheriffs' offices and local law enforcement agencies in the 26 Florida counties that meet the definition of 'rural area." The Division of Law Enforcement is a Florida state law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction and officers assigned to each of the state's 67 counties. The goal of the project is to provide access to crime intelligence collected by FWC officers during their patrol activities in Florida's rural areas and share this information with rural partner agencies across jurisdictional boundaries. This endeavor will assist rural law enforcement agencies in targeting prolific offenders across jurisdictional lines, identify and manage criminal hotspots, identify and investigate linked series of crimes or incidents across jurisdictions, and facilitate problem-solving policing. The program will allow rural partner agencies to connect to resources, expertise, and information with the goal of maximizing the ability to detect, prevent, apprehend, and respond to criminal activity, thus combating rural crime in Florida. The Division will hire two crime intelligence analysts to set up and run the program. The analysts will analyze and collate intelligence data submitted by FWC officers, enter the data in an intelligence database, and disseminate the data through information-sharing portals and personal contact to the Division's partner agencies.

CA/CF