Robert Menendez

MENENDEZ HELPS SECURE MORE THAN $7.1 MILLION FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT TECHNOLOGY AND JUVENILE JUSTICE PROJECTS IN NJ

Funding from Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Bill to support key public safety programs

November 5, 2009

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) hailed the Senate passage of the Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Bill, as part of which he helped secure more than $7.1 million in law enforcement technology and youth crime prevention programs. The Senate now awaits the legislation to be reconciled with the House of Representatives version before final passage.

“This is a substantial investment toward keep our streets safe for New Jersey’s families,” said Menendez. “These funds will also help ensure that our dedicated law enforcement officers have the tools they need to protect and serve our communities and to keep our neighborhoods safe. Investing in projects to prevent juvenile crime helps our youth reach their full potential, so they can fully participate in and contribute to our communities.”

New Jersey projects that Menendez helped to secure funding include:

Jubilee Center Children's Program -- $250,000
Recipient: All Saints Community Service and Development Corporation (Hoboken)
Purpose: This project will provide at-risk and low-income children living in public housing with academic tutoring, computer training and access, arts and cultural activities, healthy meals and physical education, so they can succeed in school and overcome the barriers they face to grow into self-sufficient and productive individuals. It provides a safe environment for children, allowing their parents or guardians to be gainfully employed.

County-Wide Public Safety Radio Communication System -- $900,000
Recipient: County of Bergen
Purpose: To establish a new countywide-Trunked Radio System providing efficient wireless communication for all public safety/service agencies with seamless interoperability. Bergen County has an area of approximately 234 square miles and population of about 900,000.  The purpose of this system is to serve the County's Public Safety First Responders and Public Service personnel in performance of their duties to enhance the safety and security of the County constituency. 

County-wide Interoperability system -- $500, 000
Recipient: County of Camden
Purpose: Intermittent Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) from a Northeastern television station causes periodic signal disruptions to the Camden County Public Safety Communications System.  This Public Safety Communications System is integral to the operation and coordination of all county emergency operations.  Funding is requested to upgrade the hardware, software and infrastructure of the Camden County Emergency Communications System. The upgrade requires the acquisition of the following: hardware, software and licensing for additional UHF/VHF frequencies. This project will improve county-wide communication while increasing the safety of all residents of Camden County and surrounding counties.

Union City Technology Project -- $300, 000
Recipient: Union City
Purpose: To purchase and install 40 video surveillance cameras along Bergenline and Summit Avenues to combat a concentration and increase in homicides, armed robberies, armed assaults, and other crimes along the Avenues.  Approximately 40 PTZ (pan/tilt/zoom) cameras will be strategically placed at intersections.  Activities will be monitored by civilian personnel located in the precincts.  Retrievable data will be archived on the city's CAD/RMS system.Union City is experiencing an increase and concentration of violent and serious crime along its two major retail strips and those streets immediately perpendicular to them. The most marked violent crime concentrations are homicides, aggravated assaults and armed robberies. 

After School Programs and Gang Prevention Job Training Initiative -- $250,000
Recipient: City of Plainfield -Housing Authority
Purpose: To develop an after school and summer gang and drug prevention initiative that will include a job training component. Plainfield's two leading problems include crime and unemployment, which are intertwined with the growing number of ex-convicts and emerging gangs cradled between the city's promises of improved safety and economic vitality.  To address these issues, the city will develop and pilot an after school and summer gang and drug prevention initiative that provides job training and education programs targeting youth at-risk of joining gangs or seeking to leave them in order to become productive members of society.

Gang Prevention - $500,000
Recipient: The Community YMCA (Middletown)
Purpose: The Community YMCA provides multi-dimensional supportive services enabling each child the opportunity to fulfill his or her full potential based upon the nationally recognized Casey Life Skills Curriculum. This program focuses on youth and their individual strengths while taking control of their own lives.  The YMCA will provide an environment with expectations to remain out of trouble, in school and substance free.  Proactive youth programs prevent at-risk youth from the negative interactions with the justice system.

Youth Mentoring Program - $200, 000
Recipient: Generations Incorporated
Purpose: This program is designed to assist young people and their families in South Jersey. Services will include an after school program, as well as other character enrichment activities, including a Teen Summit, weekend activities,, and workshops. The intervention facets of the program include a mentor component, construction trades training, academic tutoring, employment readiness/placement, and victim impact training. This program will help to decrease the child abuse and neglect referrals that are generated in Southern New Jersey.  This program will help change the behavior of troubled youth and make them more productive citizens.

Returning Offender Initiative -- $400,000
Recipient:           City of Newark
Purpose:  To provide training and legal services to returning offenders. The ReLeSe program is designed to help individuals with criminal records address civil legal matters that are barriers to successful community reintegration. ReLeSe matches ex-offenders with volunteer attorneys to handle issues most commonly encountered by recently incarcerated individuals but not handled by existing legal services programs.  Any low-income Newark (or Essex County) resident who has been incarcerated in jail or prison is eligible for ReLeSe assistance.

Camden Police Department Mobile Communications Center - $200,000
Recipient: Camden City Municipal Government
Purpose: To equip the Mobile Communications Center with repeaters and backup IT support equipment to ensure continued services to Camden Police and other emergency agencies’ functions.  It is vital to ensure communication to and from law enforcement during small and/or large scale incidents, where the primary source of communication has been interrupted (i.e. 9-11, Katrina).  This project will ensure that public safety responses are not delayed or interrupted by the lack of communication between personnel in the field and all personnel that necessitate an exchange of communication with those individuals.

Fish Stock improvement initiative -- $1,000, 000
Recipient:           Partnership for Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Science
Project Purpose:  This project will improve the management of summer flounder and black sea bass in the Mid-Atlantic region. PMAFS will design and implement a science research program addressing the most urgent data limitations restricting improved management of summer flounder in the Mid-Atlantic. The summer flounder and black sea bass are among the most important recreational and commercial fish in the Mid-Atlantic.  PMAFS will address science issues relevant to the improved understanding of summer flounder recruitment, population demographics, and discard mortality. 

SPEAK UP Hotline Outreach and Public Education -- $500,000
Recipient:           Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office
Purpose:  The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office seeks to implement a countywide SPEAK UP Hotline Outreach and Pubic Education program.  SPEAK UP is a national hotline (1-866-SPEAK-UP) for students to anonymously report weapon-related threats in their schools and communities.  The county believes that the SPEAK UP hotline public awareness, including teaching materials, teacher training, PSAs, and other outreach activities is an essential tool to ensuring that county residents remain safe.

Jersey City Housing Authority - Drug Elimination Program -- $300,000
Recipient: City of Jersey City
Purpose: To reintroduce, at an admittedly smaller scale, the key elements of the Drug Elimination Program. The purpose is primarily two-fold; to help make the most dangerous sites safer, and to improve relationships between residents and the Jersey City Police Department.  Reintroducing off-duty cops at some sites, offering after school drug awareness workshops for the children in public housing, sponsoring parenting programs and possibly bringing back the recreational programs will give residents and members of the JCPD multiple opportunities to establish that trust and familiarity which can only lead safer communities.

Gunshot Location System (GLS) and Radio Communication Upgrade -- $300,000
Recipient: City of Trenton
Purpose:  To purchase the ShotSpotter Gunshot Location System (GLS) and make crucial upgrades to radio communication technology.  The implementation of the ShotSpotter GLS will enable the City of Trenton to effectively and accurately detect and locate the origin of gunshots and weapons-related incidents. Advanced radio equipment will provide officers with additional coverage in buildings and on city streets. A review of crime throughout the city shows a 5.9 square mile area that accounts for a high incidence of homicides, firearm assaults, gun possessions and recoveries and shots fired. Additionally, the police department supports the procurement of an 800 MHz P25 Digital Trunked Simulcast Network.  The new system will provide Trenton with a complete solution to its communication needs.

Youth Gang Prevention -- $50,000
Recipient: Crossroads Programs, Inc. (Willingboro)
Purpose:  This program is designed to reduce the economic and societal costs of juvenile delinquency by preventing youth involvement in gangs and/or the juvenile justice system. The goal is to intervene much earlier when a young person is on a life trajectory toward delinquency and all of the associated risks.  The plan is to promote positive peer relationships and adult role models for at-risk preteens for the purpose of improving conduct and school performance, and, ultimately, steering their lives in a different direction.

KidsPeace Cumberland County Therapeutic Foster Care Program  -- $250,000
Recipient:  KidsPeace
Purpose:  Kids Peace will establish a therapeutic foster care program in Cumberland County, New Jersey. This program will address critical needs by providing community-based placement to children involved with or at risk for involvement with the juvenile justice system; addressing the mental health needs of children in the social service system; and providing safe and supportive homes to children. Therapeutic foster care has been shown to reduce violent crime among adolescents with a history of chronic delinquency an average of 70%. In addition, for every dollar spent on therapeutic foster care, an estimated $14 is saved in corrections system costs.

User-Authenticating Personalized Weapon - $1,000,000
Recipient:           New Jersey Institute of Technology
Purpose:  NJIT has developed a unique technology for safeguarding handguns from unauthorized use based on biometric identification technology that identifies the shooter at the moment of trigger pull so that only an authorized shooter can operate the weapon. Proposed work will streamline the prototype into a commercialized version that has redesigned, compact, energy efficient printed circuit boards and support multi-shot semi-automatic operation.

New Jersey Regional Youth Development Program  -- $400,000
Recipient:  USA Swimming Foundation (Berkeley Heights)
Purpose:  This program will provide after school recreational programming for inner city, lower income youth in Newark, Bayonne, Jersey City, Plainfield and Ashbury Park, New Jersey.
There is a direct correlation between after school programming and the reduction of violent crime and gang involvement. 

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