September 23, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Nevada Senators Harry Reid and John Ensign today announced more than $3.1 million for law enforcement and public safety across the state. Benefiting from these funds is the Nevada Office of the Attorney General, the City of Reno, the National Judicial College, the Boulder City Police Department, the Las Vegas Police Department, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Clark County, The Reno-Sparks Indian Colony Tribal Court, the City of Reno, and the National Council for Juvenile and Family Court Judges.

“This funding will allow numerous law enforcement agencies to better do their jobs while increasing public safety throughout Nevada,” Reid said. “I’m so happy that we’ve made an investment in job creation that has the added bonus of keeping Nevadans safe.”

“Creating jobs is one of the most pressing issues currently facing our state,” said Ensign.  “This grant money will help to do this while ensuring that our law enforcement has the funds necessary to continue to protect the citizens of Nevada.”

Detailed grant information follows:

·        SASP Formula Program for Nevada Office of the Attorney General

 Recently, the Nevada Office of the Attorney General was awarded a grant in the amount of $239,352. The funds will be put to use for the SASP Formula Program. The Sexual Assault Services Program (SASP) was created by the Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005 (VAWA 2005), 42 U.S.C. §14043g, and is the first Federal funding stream solely dedicated to the provision of direct intervention and related assistance for victims of sexual assault. The SASP encompasses five different funding streams for States and

Territories, tribes, state sexual assault coalitions, tribal sexual assault coalitions, and culturally specific organizations. The Sexual Assault Services Formula Grant Program (SASP Formula Program) directs grant dollars to States and Territories to assist them in supporting rape crisis centers and other nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations that provide core services, direct intervention, and related assistance to victims of sexual assault. Funds provided through the SASP Formula Grant Program are designed to supplement other funding sources directed at addressing sexual assault on the State and territorial level. Rape crisis centers and other nonprofit organizations such as dual programs providing both domestic violence and sexual violence intervention services play a vital role in assisting sexual assault victims through the healing process, as well as assisting victims through the medical, criminal justice, and other social support systems. In order to provide comprehensive services to victims of sexual assault, the SASP Formula Grant Program will assist States and Territories in supporting rape crisis centers and other nonprofit organizations in the provision of direct intervention and related assistance.

For more information about this grant, contact the Office of Justice Program's Office of Communications at 202/307-0703.

 

·       Smart Policing Initiative for the city of Reno

Recently, the city of Reno was awarded a grant in the amount of $293,640. The Smart Policing Initiative seeks to build upon the concepts of 'offender-based' and 'place-based' policing and broaden the knowledge of effective policing strategies. The most convincing research demonstrates that 'place-based' or 'hotspot' policing reduces violent crime and neighborhood disorder. This initiative address the need for effective policing that requires a tightly focused, collaborative approach that is measurable, based on sound, detailed analysis and includes policies and procedures for accountability.

 

The city of Reno will educate the public, drug prescribers, pharmacies, and patrol officers about prescription drug abuse. They will train police officers to recognize illegal possession and distribution of prescription drugs and provide them with the technology in their vehicles for identifying pills that are not in their proper container. Reno City will also work with the Nevada Board of Pharmacy to see if a system can be established that will notify law enforcement of any abuse or fraud concerns related to prescription drugs. Reno City will also hold prescription drug drop-off events, where drugs can be disposed of properly, preventing the abuse and protecting the environment. The Reno Police Department will partner with Washoe County Child Protective Services to identify children of drug abusers, who will be referred to the Strengthening Families program. For more information about this grant, contact the Office of Justice Program's Office of Communications at 202/307-0703.

 

 

·       Innovation Programs for the National Judicial College

Recently, the National Judicial College was awarded a grant in the amount of $371,119. The College plans to put these funds to use for Field Programs. The National Initiative: Encouraging Innovation: Field-Initiated Programs is designed to strengthen the criminal justice system by challenging those in the field to identify and define emerging or chronic systemic issues faced by one or more components of the criminal justice continuum (includes but not limited to law enforcement, corrections, courts, and community collaborations) and to propose innovative solutions to address these issues. The National Judicial College will create a best practice model for handling mental competence issues in the criminal justice system. They will assemble a collaborative panel of multidisciplinary experts; visit jurisdictions with a successful model; and conduct extensive research and analysis to devise a best practices model. The National Judicial College will develop a best practice model that addresses the complex and challenging issues involving mental competence at the pretrial, trial, and post-trial stages of a criminal proceeding. For more information about this grant, contact the Office of Justice Program's Office of Communications at 202/307-0703.

 

·       Boulder City Police Department to receive Grant

 

Recently the Boulder City Police Department was awarded a grant in the amount of $600,000. The Boulder City Police Department will use the grant funds to construct a Regional Training and Shooting Facility. The Regional Training and Shooting Facility will significantly improve the training of law enforcement personnel in Southern Nevada. The additional

training will lead to increased on-the-job safety as well as increased ability to provide a remote location for firearms training away from civilian community residents. The facility will be made available to various agencies and is ideal for building a cooperative effort in the fight against crime and terrorism. For more information about this grant, contact the Office of Justice Program's Office of Communications at 202/307-0703.

 

·       Las Vegas Police Department to receive Grant

 Recently, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was awarded a grant in the amount of $499,695. The Department will make use of these funds to solve cold cases with DNA solicitation. The purpose of this proposal research, review, identify and prioritize cold case homicides from 1980-2000 where biological evidence exists and use the same approach to resolve sexual assault cases where no suspect has been identified. A collaborative effort between

LVMPD Cold Case Homicide Team, Sexual Assault Detail, Forensic Science Laboratory, and Clark County District Attorney’s Office, the local office of the FBI and Coroner’s Office will work on target cases. In both of these approaches cases will be processed for DNA analysis with the entry of potentially probative profiles into CODIS. The Department has received other grants for DNA work. For more information about this grant, contact the Office of Justice Program's Office of Communications at 202/307-0703

 

·        University of Nevada, Las Vegas to receive Grant

$193,040 from the Crime and Justice Research Program. This award will fund research to investigate the effect of data quality on predictive hotspot mapping techniques. The research will determine empirical descriptions of the quality of a range of geocoding techniques, characterize the effects of data quality on the robustness of selected predictive crime hotspot mapping techniques, and determine the optimum parameters for predictive crime hotspot mapping techniques given a range of data quality parameters within the context of the accuracy and precision of hotspot prediction. The Board of Regents, NSHE, obo University of Nevada, Las Vegas will oversee the evaluation, process documentation, and dissemination activities.

 

·       Clark County to receive Grant

$400,000 from the Using DNA Technology to Identify the Missing Grant Program.

The goal of this project is to support the exhumation, sampling, and DNA testing of samples from missing persons cases. Specific objectives include: 1) identifying, reviewing, and prioritizing cases involving unidentified human remains that can potentially be solved using DNA analysis; 2) collecting and evaluating biological evidence from cases that may reasonably be expected to contain DNA; 3) performing DNA testing and analyses on such biological evidence, with actual testing to be outsourced; 4) verifying upload of all DNA profiles obtained into the FBI's National DNA Index System using CODIS version 6.0; 5) positively identifying remains.

 

·       The Reno-Sparks Indian Colony (RSIC) Tribal Court to receive Grant

$263,973 from the FY09 Tribal Juvenile Accountability Discretionary Grant Program. The Reno-Sparks Indian Colony (RSIC) Tribal Court will establish and maintain programs to enable juvenile courts and juvenile probation officers to be more effective and efficient in holding juveniles accountable and reducing recidivism. It is anticipated that through juvenile court peer review, active involvement by Tribal youth in the community and the guidance of Juvenile Probation Officers, adjudicated juvenile offenders can take part in positive community building with non-offending youth activity. The Tribal Court will target 50 youth (under 17 years of age) out of a possible 305 who are eligible. The primary goal of this project will be to develop a comprehensive Juvenile Justice system for the Reno Sparks Indian Colony in order to hold youth accountable for their truant and delinquent behavior and strengthen the tribal justice system, thereby reducing the number of juvenile incidents.

 

·       The City of Reno to receive Grant

$293,640 from the FY 09 Smart Policing: Evidence-Based Law Enforcement: Smart Policing Demonstration Initiative. The Smart Policing Initiative seeks to build upon the concepts of “offender-based” and “place-based” policing and broaden the knowledge of effective policing strategies. The most convincing research demonstrates that “place-based” or “hotspot” policing reduces violent crime and neighborhood disorder. This initiative address the need for effective policing that requires a tightly focused, collaborative approach that is measurable, based on sound, detailed analysis and includes policies and procedures for accountability.

 

The city of Reno will educate the public, drug prescribers, pharmacies, and patrol officers about prescription drug abuse. They will train police officers to recognize illegal possession and distribution of prescription drugs and provide them with the technology in their vehicles for identifying pills that are not in their proper container. Reno City will also work with the Nevada Board of Pharmacy to see if a system can be established that will notify law enforcement of any abuse or fraud concerns related to prescription drugs. Reno will also hold prescription drug drop-off events, where drugs can be disposed of properly, preventing the abuse and protecting the environment. The Reno Police Department will partner with Washoe County Child Protective Services to identify children of drug abusers, who will be referred to the Strengthening Families program.

 

·       The National Council for Juvenile and Family Court Judges to receive Grant

$2,454,650 from the FY 09 Child Abuse Training for Judicial and Court Personnel Program.

The National Council for Juvenile and Family Court Judges will provide targeted training and technical assistance services to more than 30 dependency and family courts at the local and state level by utilizing the OJJDP-funded Model Courts program, tracking and disseminating performance of the participating courts’ progress in implementing best practices in child welfare and dependency cases, offering child abuse and neglect training institutes for newly appointed family court judges, developing and disseminating publications on best practices and emerging court trends, and leveraging relationships with national organizations who are at the vanguard of national child welfare policy.