Perryville Police Department's Investigations Improvement Intitative

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 2, the city of Perryville will use its grant to supplement the Perryville Police Department's Investigations Bureau and Narcotics Enforcement by promoting a current part-time investigator to full-time and hiring one full-time patrol officer. The investigator will assist with current case investigations, while the additional patrol officer will maintain the current level of police patrol services provided by the department. The full-time investigator will also relieve the current narcotics detective of part of his general investigations caseload, thereby freeing him to conduct more narcotics-related investigations. This position will also provide assistance to the narcotics officer with self-initiated, citizen complaint-initiated, confidential informant-initiated, arrest information-initiated, and state, local and federal inter-departmental investigations as needed. This collaborative effort will increase the effectiveness and expedience of narcotics investigations.

CA/CF