Justice Information Sharing Hub for the Region and the State

The FY 2017 Technology Innovation for Public Safety (TIPS) Addressing Precipitous Increases in Crime is designed to enable strategic information sharing across crime-fighting agencies and with identified partnerships to address specific local or regional crime problems. This program is funded under the ‘reserved funds’ section (42 U.S.C. section 3756(b)(1)) of the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program. The ‘reserved funds’ section provides that up to 5 percent of the funds available to carry out the JAG Program may be granted for one or more of the purposes specified at 42 U.S.C. section 3751 upon a determination that such a grant is necessary ‘to combat, address, or otherwise respond to precipitous or extraordinary increases in crime, or in a type or types of crime. 42 U.S.C. section 3756(b)(1).

The Harrison County Commission plans to mitigate the opioid epidemic. The Harrison County Sheriff's Office proposes to act as a Justice Information Sharing hub for the region and the state, and through the use of analytic technology and broad-based collaborative partnerships, create a program that will effectively assist both law enforcement and community-based partners to address the problem from a unified front. This program will also enhance the identified technology challenge of expanding analytical capacity that exists in a primarily rural state such as West Virginia. Stakeholders in the program will include representatives of the following organizations, many of which have provided attached letters of support. CA/NCF