Probation Officer Preservation Program

The State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Program: Combating Criminal Narcotics Activity Stemming from the Southern border of the United States under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is designed to provide resources for hiring, retention, assistance, and equipment to local law enforcement along the Southern border and in High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas in order to combat criminal narcotics activity stemming from the Southern border of the United States. For the purpose of this solicitation, the term 'criminal narcotics activity' includes all drugs controlled by the Controlled Substance Act 21 USC Section 801.

Under Category II: Enhancing Southern Border Jails, Community Corrections, and Detention Operations, Travis County, in conjunction with the Travis County Adult Probation Department, will use its grant award to continue to improve community corrections operations by expanding the use of Travis Community Impact Supervision (TCIS), a national community supervision model, and improving community safety. Grant funds will support five probation officers, three of whom will be assigned to the Specialized Substance Abuse Caseload, and two of whom will be assigned to the Specialized High Risk (Gang) Caseload. These high risk caseloads may serve probationers with histories of violent offenses whose assessment recommends against community supervision due to significant gang and/or narcotics involvement. Specialized probation officers are an integral supervision strategy in controlling continued criminal activity as they provide more intensive offender monitoring than regular caseload probation officers. Probation officers will to continue serve on the Texas Violent Gang Task Force and Texas Department of Public Safety's Austin Area Gang Intelligence Roundtable. Funds will also pay for the officers' travel for grant-related training.

CA/NCF