Providing NCIC Access to Rural Areas in Alabama

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 Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center (ACJIC) will use its award to provide the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database access to up to 352 agencies in 49 rural counties in Alabama. The funds will accomplish these primary objectives: 1) deploy the necessary hardware and software to 352 rural agencies to provide them with NCIC access; 2) hire a crime information agent, who will provide services to all criminal justice agencies in eight rural counties in Region 6; and 3) fund 50 percent of the salary and benefits for one full-time ACJIC employee, who will be responsible for project oversight. ACJIC is the state criminal justice information technology provider for many city and county law enforcement agencies, as well as the designated state NCIC administration agency, and is well positioned to implement this project.

CA/CF