The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and Law Enforcement
As you know, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) on February 17, 2009. The ARRA includes $4 billion in Department of Justice funding to enhance state, local and tribal law enforcement efforts including the hiring of new police officers, to combat violence against women, and to fight internet crimes against children. The money will be primarily distributed to state and local governments according to formula based grants or competition. Specific funding programs and latest application procedures are described below. Let's work to ensure our employers aggressively seek this critically needed economic recovery money.
- $1 billion to fund local police officers through the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program. These grants will fund an estimated 5,500 local police officers through the COPS Hiring Recovery Program. This is a competitive grant program available for the hiring and rehiring of full-time law enforcement officers. There is no local match requirement but funding will be based on current entry-level salary and benefits. The employer would be responsible for compensation and benefit levels beyond that level. Grants will provide funding for three years. Once federal funding ceases, the employer must retain all positions awarded under the program. Application for grants will only be accepted on-line and materials will be available on-line March 16, 2009. See web site shown below.
- $2 billion in the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program through the Office of Justice Program (OJP)’s Bureau of Justice Assistance. The program will help state and local governments support a broad range of activities to prevent and control crime. The procedure for allocating JAG grants is based on a formula of population and violent crime statistics, in combination with a minimum allocation to ensure that each state and territory receives an appropriate share of funding. The Byrne JAG program will be distributed by formula – 60 percent to the states and 40 percent to local governments. Specific allocations for eligible local governments by state and application procedures are available on the JAG program web site shown below.
- $225 million in the Edward Byrne Competitive Grant program, which is similar to the JAG program, except funding is awarded on a competitive basis. In addition to state and local governments, for-profit and non-profit organizations are eligible to apply.
- $225 million in Violence Against Women Grants which will be distributed on a competitive basis.
- $225 million assistance for tribal law enforcement which will be distributed on a competitive basis.
- $125 million assistance for rural law enforcement to combat drug related crime which will be distributed on a competitive basis.
- $100 million in funding for victim compensation and assistance which will be distributed to states through formula based grants.
- $50 million in funding for the Internet Crimes Against Children task force program, which is a national network of 59 coordinated task forces.
- $40 million assistance for law enforcement along the southern border and high intensity drug trafficking areas which will be distributed on a competitive basis.
For more detail, including current updates regarding application deadlines for the various programs, go to the following web sites:
COPS program - http://www.cops.usdoj.gov
JAG program and others - http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/recovery/
Violence Against Women grants - http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov