Attorney General Holder Announces Recovery Act Grant to Save or Create Justice Related Georgia Jobs

/PRNewswire / -- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder today announced that more than $36 million in Recovery Act funds will go to the State of Georgia to maintain or increase public safety in the state, while creating or retaining jobs within the law enforcement community. These Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program funds are part of more than $4 billion in Justice Department Recovery Act funds available to assist state, local and tribal law enforcement and for other criminal justice activities that help to prevent crime and improve the criminal justice system in the United States while supporting the creation of jobs and much needed resources for states and local communities.

As submitted in their application, the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council plans to promote safe communities and stable families where children can thrive; provide a safe environment where Georgians live, work, and play; provide a safe, secure state by effectively managing and rehabilitating offenders; promote homeland security and emergency preparedness for natural and man-made disasters or acts of terrorism; and reduce loss of life and injury on Georgia's roads. Georgia is required to provide a portion of the $36.2 million to the local jurisdictions.

"By addressing Georgia's economic challenges while simultaneously meeting the state's public safety priorities, these funds represent the best of what the Recovery Act can do for our communities," Attorney General Eric Holder said. "This vital funding will help fight crime and build safer communities, and we look forward to continued work with Georgia to address these criminal justice goals."

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. Sixty percent of the allocation is awarded directly to a state and 40 percent is set aside for units of local government. States are required to sub-grant a portion of the funds to local units of government, such as a city, county, township or town. Faith-based and other community organizations are also eligible to receive pass-through funding from the state, as are Tribal governments.

In addition to the $36.2 million to the state, seven local units of government will receive Recovery Act JAG awards: $222,330 to Athens Clarke County Unified Government, $48,474 to Cherokee County, $670,806 to Clayton County, $128,245 to Hall County, $155,917 to Newton County, $28,626 to Thomas County, and $131,871 to the City of Smyrna. All other local Recovery Act JAG awards will be announced at a later date. The deadline for local units of government to submit their Recovery Act applications to the Department of Justice has been extended to June 17, 2009. The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), a component of the Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs, established the previous deadline of May 18 to encourage early submission of applications in an effort to provide economic stimulus as soon as possible. Because this is a non-competitive formula grant program, the extension of this deadline does not impact either eligibility or funding determinations. For more local solicitation information, visit http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA/recoveryJAG/JAGrecoveryLocal.pdf.

-----
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.politicalpotluck.com
Political News You Can Use

Department of Justice Announces Resources for Fight Against Mexican Drug Cartels

/PRNewswire / -- Today Deputy Attorney General David Ogden announced increased efforts and reallocation of DOJ personnel to combat Mexican drug cartels in the United States and to help Mexican law enforcement battle cartels in their own country. Deputy Attorney General Ogden was joined in announcing a comprehensive response to the situation on the Southwest border by Department of Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano and Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg.

"For more than a quarter century, U.S. law enforcement agencies have recognized that the best way to fight the most sophisticated and powerful criminal organizations is through intelligence-based investigations to target the greatest threats," said Deputy Attorney General David Ogden. "The Department's Mexican Cartel Strategy confronts those cartels as criminal organizations. As we've found with other large criminal groups, if you take their money and lock up their leaders, you can loosen their grips on the vast organizations they use to carry out their criminal enterprises. The Department of Justice is committed to taking advantage of all available resources to target the Mexican cartels and to help our Mexican counterparts in their courageous effort to take on these criminal organizations."

Today the United States announced it will be investing $700 million this year in enhancing Mexican law enforcement and judicial capacity and working closely to coordinate efforts against the cartels. The Department of Justice, through the FBI, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), the Criminal Division and the Office of Justice Programs, will work to investigate and prosecute cartel members for their illegal activities in the United State and with law enforcement colleagues to disrupt illegal flows of weapons and bulk cash to Mexico.

The Mexican Cartel Strategy, led by the Deputy Attorney General, uses federal prosecutor-led task forces that bring together all law enforcement components to identify, disrupt and dismantle the Mexican drug cartels through investigation, prosecution and extradition of their key leaders and facilitators, and seizure and forfeiture of their assets. The Department is increasing its focus on investigations and prosecutions of the southbound smuggling of guns and cash that fuel the violence and corruption and attacking the cartels in Mexico itself, in partnership with the Mexican Attorney General's Office (PGR) and the Secretariat of Public Security (SSP).

DEA, already the largest U.S. drug enforcement presence in Mexico with 11 offices in that country, is placing 16 new positions in its Southwest border field divisions. With this increase, 29 percent of DEA's domestic agent positions (1,180 agents) are now allocated to its Southwest border field divisions. DEA is also forming four additional Mobile Enforcement Teams (METs) to specifically target Mexican methamphetamine trafficking operations and associated violence, both along the border and in U.S. cities impacted by the cartels.

ATF is increasing its efforts by relocating 100 personnel to the Houston Field Division in the next 45 days as part of a new ATF intelligence-driven effort, known as Gunrunner Impact Teams (GRITs). The teams will focus ATF's violent crime-fighting and firearms trafficking expertise, along with its regulatory authority and strategic partnerships to combat violence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

As part of the Recovery Act funding, ATF received $10 million for Project Gunrunner efforts, aimed at disrupting arms trafficking between the U.S. and Mexico, to include hiring 25 new special agents, six industry operations investigators, three intelligence research specialists and three investigative analysts. The funding will establish three permanent field offices, dedicated to firearms trafficking investigations, in McAllen, Texas; El Centro, Calif.; and Las Cruces, N.M. (including a satellite office in Roswell, N.M.). Project Gunrunner has resulted in ATF referring more than 1,500 defendants for prosecution involving more than 12,000 weapons.

ATF will also continue its eTrace initiative with Mexican officials, which allows law enforcement agencies to identify trafficking trends of drug trafficking organizations and other criminal organizations funneling guns into Mexico from the United States, as well as to develop investigative leads in order to stop firearms traffickers and straw purchasers (people who knowingly purchase guns for prohibited persons) before they cross the border. In FY08, Mexico submitted more than 7,500 recovered guns for tracing, showing that most originated in Texas, Arizona and California.

The FBI is stepping up its efforts along the Southwest border by creating a Southwest Intelligence Group (SWIG), which will serve as a clearinghouse of all FBI activities involving Mexico. The FBI will also increase its focus on public corruption, kidnappings and extortion relating to Southwest border issues.

Already, the FBI has undertaken successful initiatives in Mexico and Central America, including the Central American Fingerprint Exchange (CAFE) initiative. The FBI will continue this initiative, which was developed to collect, store, and integrate biometric data from El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and the Mexican state of Chiapas into a central database accessible to U.S. law enforcement, as well as the Transnational Anti-Gang initiative, which coordinates the sharing of gang intelligence between the U.S. and El Salvador.

USMS has stepped-up its efforts along the Southwest border, deploying 94 additional Deputy U.S. Marshals during the last eight months and sending four additional deputies to Mexico City to assist the Marshals Service Mexico City Foreign Field Office.

USMS is increasing its efforts in the Southwest border region under the Mexico Investigative Liaison Program, a cross-border violent fugitive apprehension initiative where USMS personnel, through daily contact with Mexican law enforcement, provide a rapid international response to law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border in the apprehension of fugitives who commit crimes and flee across the international border.

Twenty-five new Criminal Investigators-Asset Forfeiture Specialists have been placed in USMS asset forfeiture units in the field. The new positions are unique in that they will be solely dedicated to the USMS Asset Forfeiture Division and will support U.S. Attorneys Offices and investigative agencies in investigations of cartels and other large-scale investigations.

In addition, DOJ's Organized Drug Enforcement Task Forces Program (OCDETF) is adding analyst personnel to its strike force capacity along the Southwest border and the Office of Justice Programs will be investing $30 million in stimulus funding to assist with state and local law enforcement to combat narcotics activity coming through the southern border and in high intensity drug trafficking areas. State and local law enforcement organizations along the border can apply for COPS and Byrne Justice Assistance grants from the $3 billion provided for those programs in the stimulus package.

-----
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page

If You Have a Cell Phone, You Can Help Return Abducted Children, Missing Persons

/PRNewswire/ -- Keep Georgia Safe, Georgia's only private, non-profit organization with the mission to provide safety education and crime prevention training to Georgia's families and law enforcement agencies, has partnered with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) to communicate abduction alerts via cell phones. Now, when the GBI issues an alert that a child has been abducted, Keep Georgia Safe immediately sends the abduction information to subscribers' cell phones.

"Statistics show that the first three hours after a child's abduction are the most critical in recovery," says Keep Georgia Safe founder Gary Martin Hays. "Through this network of cell phone subscribers, we can all help recover Georgia's kids and return them home safely."

"Without the combined efforts of law enforcement, the broadcasters and emergency management, this program would be ineffective," says Vernon M. Keenan, director of the GBI. "We eagerly welcome the assistance of the private sector in getting the word out to Georgia citizens about missing children, missing adults and/or dangers they may face."

Keep Georgia Safe has a two-pronged approach to crime prevention: 1) Proactive: School Curriculum Initiative and Community Safety Seminars, Web Resources and Media Campaigns 2) Reactive: Alert System Network. As the only organization that sends out all three of Georgia's emergency alerts, the Keep Georgia Safe Wireless Network uses a text platform to notify opt-in wireless subscribers when the GBI issues any of its three emergency alerts:

-- Levi's Call: (Georgia's AMBER Alert) for an abducted or missing child
-- Mattie's Call: elderly or disabled missing person alert
-- Kimberly's Call: dangerous fugitive alert



Keep Georgia Safe provides the alert service free of charge. Standard text charges, if any, will apply pursuant to the agreement with your cellular provider. To join the network, visit www.keepgeorgiasafe.org and enter your cell phone number. Subscribers will not receive any calls or alerts other than GBI-issued alerts. For more information on Keep Georgia Safe or its alert network, visit www.keepgeorgiasafe.org or call 770.934.8000.

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
Community News You Can Use
Fayetteville, Peachtree City, Tyrone
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page

Muscogee County Marshals Take Top National Honors in IACP Law Enforcement Awards

The Muscogee County Marshal’s Office has taken Second Place among the nation’s top law enforcement agencies in the prestigious National Law Enforcement Challenge judged by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). In an official ceremony conducted in Columbus by the Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety, Director Bob Dallas presented the National IACP Award to Muscogee County Marshal Gregory Countryman on Wednesday, October 29th, at 10AM.

There were 560 entries from 30 states and Canada entered in the National IACP Law Enforcement Challenge. GOHS Director Bob Dallas said, “This means the Annual IACP Challenge has recognized the Muscogee County Marshal’s Office as a national winner among all competing law enforcement agencies from across the country. We’re honored to see the Muscogee County Marshal’s Office receive this Award in the IACP’s National Law Enforcement Challenge.”

Georgia’s Highway Safety Director will present the Muscogee County Marshal’s Office with an IACP National Second Place Award for the Special Law Enforcement Agency category in recognition of overall highway safety officer training, public information and education initiatives, innovative public safety programs, and highway safety enforcement efforts.

The actual IACP award will be presented to the Muscogee County Marshal’s Office at the National Highway Safety Awards Banquet on November 11th in San Diego, California.

“We’re delighted that Muscogee County will be one of eighteen Georgia law enforcement agencies recognized at the upcoming IACP Highway Safety Awards in San Diego,” said GOHS Director Bob Dallas. “Together, these fine law enforcement agencies from Georgia will receive a total of 20 National Law Enforcement Challenge Awards.” The Annual IACP National Law Enforcement Challenge is designed to recognize the efforts of law enforcement agencies that save lives on our highways by increasing safety belt usage, slowing down speeders and reducing impaired and aggressive driving.

“The Muscogee County’s Marshal’s Office was awarded for their local enforcement efforts in the Columbus area,” said GOHS Director Dallas. “I am truly proud of everything Muscogee County does to save lives in their community and on Georgia’s roadways. It’s gratifying to see this department recognized for their pro-active measures and excellence on the job.”

The Muscogee County Marshal’s Office is an active member of the GOHS West Central Traffic Enforcement Network called WCTEN. The WCTEN network covers Talbot, Muscogee, Chattahoochee, Marion, Schley, Stewart, Webster, Sumpter, Quitman, Randolph, Terrell, Clay, Taylor and Calhoun County traffic enforcement agencies.

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page

News to Use in Fayetteville, Columbus, Atlanta, Peachtree City and all of Georgia