BALTIMORE – U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Congressmen Dutch Ruppersberger and John Sarbanes (all D-Md.) today announced $4,608,210 in new federal funding to boost safety initiatives in Baltimore City and County. The funding, provided through the U.S. Department of Justice, includes:
- $396,922 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Baltimore Handle With Care Pilot Program through the Community Policing Development Program.
- $199,995 to the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation Badges for Baseball through the Community Policing Development.
- $374,891 to Baltimore City through the Elder Justice Program.
- $687,749 to Baltimore City through the Enhancing Community Responses to the Opioid Crisis: Serving Our Youngest Crime Victims Program.
- $750,000 to Baltimore City through the Local Law Enforcement Crime Gun Intelligence Center Integration Initiative.
- $859,773 to Baltimore City through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program.
- $321,731 to Baltimore County through the Edward Byrne Memorial JAG Program.
- $43,468 to University of Maryland-Baltimore through the Body-Worn Camera Policy and Implementation Program.
- $275,000 to the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office through the Upholding the Rule of Law and Preventing Wrongful Convictions Program.
- $277,762 to Baltimore County through the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) Law Enforcement-Based Victim Specialist Program.
- $420,919 to University of Maryland-Baltimore County through the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) Research and Evaluation Initiative.
“This funding will strengthen public safety in Baltimore by supporting efforts to improve community policing, confront the opioid crisis and gun violence epidemic, and build a fairer criminal justice system,” the Members said. “We worked hard to secure this needed investment, and we’ll keep working together to expand opportunity and reduce crime in Baltimore.”
The Community Policing Development Program funds are used to develop the capacity of law enforcement to implement community policing strategies by providing guidance on promising practices through the development and testing of innovative strategies; building knowledge about effective practices and outcomes; and supporting new, creative approaches to preventing crime and promoting safe communities.
The mission of the Elder Justice Initiative is to support and coordinate the Department’s enforcement and programmatic efforts to combat elder abuse, neglect and financial fraud and scams that target our nation’s seniors. We engage in this work by focusing on the following mission areas: building federal, state & local capacity to fight elder abuse; promoting justice for older Americans; supporting research to improve elder abuse policy and practice; and helping older victims and their families.
The overarching goal of the Enhancing Community Responses to the Opioid Crisis: Serving Our Youngest Crime Victims program is to support children and youth who are crime victims as a result of the opioid crisis by providing direct services and support to these young victims at a community or jurisdictional level.
The Local Law Enforcement Crime Gun Intelligence Center Integration Initiative furthers the Department of Justice’s mission by assisting state, local and tribal law enforcement in responding to violent crime, and working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to utilize intelligence, technology, and community engagement to swiftly identify crime guns, their sources, and effectively prosecute perpetrators.
The Edward Byrne Memorial JAG Program allows states and units of local government, including tribes, to support a broad range of activities to prevent and control crime based on their own state and local needs and conditions. Grant funds can be used for state and local initiatives, technical assistance, training, personnel, equipment, supplies, contractual support, and information systems for criminal justice.
The Body-Worn Camera Policy and Implementation Program promotes the safety of law enforcement officers and citizens.
The Upholding the Rule of Law and Preventing Wrongful Convictions Program helps ensure the fair and consistent application of the rule of law in order to ensure the sustained integrity of the criminal justice system. The Program seeks to evaluate specific judicial outcomes and assess prospective risk factors that might impact a wrongful conviction.
The OVC Law Enforcement-Based Victim Specialist Program assists law enforcement to better support victims through the criminal justice process.
The OVW Research and Evaluation Initiative looks at approaches to combatting domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. By generating more knowledge about strategies for serving victims and holding offenders accountable, communities that benefit from Violence Against Women Act funding will be better equipped to align their work with practices that are known to be effective, and they will be more capable of generating empirical knowledge on the efficacy of new and promising ways of doing things.
The funding is in addition to another already-announced $3.2 million in federal public safety funding secured for Baltimore City and County since mid-November alone. Those grants include $250,000 for two Drug Free Community Coalitions to prevent youth substance misuse in Baltimore City and $477,000 to help the Baltimore City and County crime labs process DNA evidence. Another $2.5 million was awarded to the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation’s Badges for Baseball youth mentorship program.
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