MEMORANDUM
TO: Roger L. Stancil, Town Manager
FROM: Brian Curran, Police Chief
Chris Blue, Administrative Captain
Kenneth C. Pennoyer, Business Management Director
SUBJECT: Acceptance of FY2008-2009 PSN Grant Funds
DATE: December 08, 2008
The attached resolution would authorize the acceptance of FY2008-2009 Department of Justice Project Safe Neighborhoods grant funds in the amount of $27,491 to enhance the Police Department’s efforts to address violent crime and repeat offenders.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
In October 2008, the Department of Justice notified the Police Department that the Department’s request for funds had been approved in the amount of $27,491. These funds would be used to support the Police Department’s efforts to establish a Project Safe Neighborhoods program for Orange County.
Project Safe Neighborhoods involves law enforcement partnerships on the local, state and federal levels to identify repeat offenders and offer opportunities to help them become productive members of the community. The program brings the local faith community, residents, schools, social service and law enforcement agencies and other prominent community members together to relay strict no-tolerance-of-crime messages, and to offer job skills, housing and employment opportunities to repeat offenders. The Chapel Hill Police Department has managed communication and coordination with all the other agencies during the preliminary stages of this initiative. The Department of Justice funds would be used to hire a resource coordinator to coordinate program activities between the local agencies involved in the program.
Orange County will be the eighth site to partner in the Middle District of North Carolina, U.S. Department of Justice Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative. The PSN national network is designed to reduce gun and gang related violence through prosecution, prevention, and intervention efforts. It is headed by the United States Attorney's Office of the Middle District of NC.
RECOMMENDATION
We recommend that the Council adopt the attached resolution authorizing the acceptance of the Project Safe Neighborhoods grant funds, and that the Council enact the attached budget ordinance amendment appropriating the PSN grant funds.
ATTACHMENTS