The Department of Justice announced last Friday more than $370 million in grant awards to fund state, local and Tribal crime and violence reduction efforts and evidence-based strategies that support law enforcement operations, improve officer safety and build trust with communities. The department also announced the selection of six new sites to be part of its National Public Safety Partnership, a nationwide collaborative designed to address pressing local crime challenges.
The funding, from the department’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP), will support a wide range of criminal justice and public safety activities and will enable officials in jurisdictions across the country to adapt technology and data-driven measures to their public safety challenges. Grant awards will also support training to improve resilience and wellness, fund body-worn camera programs, improve public safety while expanding community engagement and underwrite research and evaluation projects that examine promising police practices.
“Our neighborhoods are safer and healthier when our law enforcement professionals have the tools and technology they need to do their jobs and when the bonds of trust with the community are strong,” said OJP Deputy Assistant Attorney General Maureen Henneberg. “The funding announced today will help provide comprehensive public safety solutions that are tailored to the needs of, and implemented in collaboration with, individual communities.”
The grants, made by OJP’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and National Institute of Justice (NIJ), will support a range of activities designed to tackle serious violence and solve crimes, from gun offenses to sexual assault. Almost $280 million is being distributed through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, the leading source of federal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions. Other awards will help state, local and Tribal criminal justice agencies improve information sharing, solve sexual assault cases, aid law enforcement officials in tracing and intercepting illegal guns and combating terrorism, and support research on promising policing practices.
The Justice Department’s Comprehensive Strategy for Reducing Violent Crime articulates a commitment to an approach that is grounded in research and consistent with our values as a nation, and that depends on the effectiveness and wellness of America’s law enforcement community. The awards announced last Friday will support the department’s work to build officer resilience and improve recruitment and diversity in the law enforcement profession. Grants will also help develop body-worn camera programs designed to improve efficiency and maximize transparency. Research grants will support randomized controlled trials and other analyses that examine issues such as field training, co-response models and officer retention.
In addition to these new awards, six cities will join the National Public Safety Partnership (PSP). PSP supports law enforcement and community partners in deploying data-driven, evidence-based strategies tailored to local needs. PSP has served more than 50 sites across the nation. The cities of Albuquerque, New Mexico; Greensboro, North Carolina; Rochester, New York; Sacramento, California; Tucson, Arizona; and Washington, D.C. joined the PSP network last Friday.
“The National Public Safety Partnership’s federal engagement with its selected sites is one of the key pillars of the Justice Department’s work to reduce violence and help strengthen communities,” said BJA Director Karhlton F. Moore. “The collaboration among local entities while utilizing the support from the FBI, ATF, DEA and the U.S. Marshals is long-lasting and assists agencies in building best practices to sustain crime reduction for years to come.”
Below is a list of programs designed to reduce violence and support law enforcement:
• BJA is awarding more than $190 million under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program – State Solicitation, which provides states, tribes and local governments with critical funding to support law enforcement, prosecutors, public defenders, courts, and corrections and community corrections agencies. Funds also support crime prevention and education initiatives, drug treatment and enforcement activities, criminal justice planning and evaluation, technology improvements, crime victim and witness initiatives, and mental health programs, including behavioral programs and crisis intervention teams. An additional $87.1 million is being awarded directly to local jurisdictions through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program – Local Solicitation.
• BJA is awarding $9 million under its Local Law Enforcement Crime Gun Intelligence Center Integration Initiative, which supports local and tribal jurisdictions’ capacity to work with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to use intelligence, technology and community engagement to swiftly identify unlawfully used firearms and their sources, and effectively prosecute perpetrators engaged in violent crime. An additional $1.3 million supports the Crime Gun Intelligence University-based Training and Education program, which allows institutions of higher education to develop programs to provide students with hands-on training on the processing of firearms evidence used to generate crime gun intelligence and the investigative processes that lead to arrest and conviction.
• BJA is awarding around $30 million through its National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, which expands state and local jurisdictions’ capacities to respond to violent crime and improves the investigation and prosecution of sexual assault cases by improving the use of sexual assault kit evidence.
• BJA is awarding $2 million under its State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training Program Training and Technical Assistance initiative, which provides training and technical assistance services to law enforcement officers who face the challenges presented by the international and domestic terrorism threat.
• BJA is awarding $400,000 under the Justice Information Sharing Training and Technical Assistance Program, which provides funding to manage the Criminal Intelligence Systems Operating Policies Training and Technical Assistance Program, which assists state, local and Tribal criminal justice agencies in reducing crime and improving the functioning of the criminal justice system through more effective information sharing, multiagency collaboration and implementation of data-driven, evidence-based strategies.
• BJA is awarding more than $19 million under its Body-Worn Camera Policy and Implementation Program to Support Law Enforcement Agencies, which provides funding to law enforcement agencies seeking to purchase body-worn cameras and to establish or expand comprehensive programs focused on maximizing the benefits of this technology and minimizing its risks.
• BJA is awarding $11.5 million under the Preventing Violence Against Law Enforcement Officers and Ensuring Officer Resilience and Survivability (VALOR) Initiative, which is designed to improve the immediate and long-term safety, wellness and resilience of the nation’s law enforcement officers through no-cost training (professional education), research and other resources.
• BJA is awarding nearly $11.8 million under the Law Enforcement Initiatives to Improve Public Safety, Enhance Agency Operations and Build Community Trust, which create and implement training and technical assistance programs for criminal justice stakeholders that support local law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies in the development of violence reduction strategies, training for law enforcement officers and implementation of ethical technological strategies that build digital trust and promote community engagement.
• BJA is awarding $20.9 million to 3,806 small jurisdictions and $4.5 million to 194 large jurisdictions under its Bulletproof Vest Partnership to provide a critical resource to law enforcement officers.
• NIJ is awarding nearly $6.3 million under its Research and Evaluation on Policing Program, which will examine the implementation and sustainment of long-term organizational change in policing agencies; and police recruitment, retention and training in today’s environment.
The awards announced above are being made as part of the regular end-of-fiscal year cycle.
The Office of Justice Programs provides federal leadership, grants, training, technical assistance?and other resources to improve the nation’s capacity to prevent and reduce crime,?advance racial equity in the administration of justice, assist victims and enhance the rule of law.?Additional information about OJP and its components can be found at?www.ojp.gov.
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