• Budget Information
• History
• Facts & Issues

Budget information

FUNDING SOURCE: 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) through Byrne / Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) (Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee Formula Allocation)

HISTORY

• Unified Government staff began meeting in 2004 to explore the possibility of sharing such a system
• The application was due on or before September 1, 2009

FACTS & ISSUES

• Through the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee (CJCC), approximately $17.5 million is available to Georgia’s units of local government.  Judicial circuits have been selected as the geographical boundaries to define formula-based allocations based on equitable amounts plus enhancements attributed to property crime data as reported in the 2007 Uniform Crime Report (UCR) to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC).
• The CJCC encouraged units of local government and components of the criminal justice system to work together to identify the best use of grant funds in the judicial circuit. The Western Judicial Circuit is eligible to receive $372,801 up to $500,000.
• After several meetings with the Athens-Clarke County Unified Government, Oconee County, and UGA Police staff, a consensus was reached to submit a proposal to expand the Integrated Criminal Justice Information Sharing System (ICJIS). ACC Unified Government staff began meeting in 2004 to explore the possibility of implementing a system.
• This data sharing system will:
  • 1) Link Athens-Clarke County, Oconee County, and the University of Georgia's disparate information systems and create a "dashboard" for criminal justice agencies that integrates primary data sources such as GCIC/NCIC, the police departments' computer-aided dispatch system, county jail databases, various courts’ case management systems, and probation
  1. 2) improve the quality and timeliness of information for more informed decision-making;
  2. 3) reduce the amount of staff time needed to enter and access vital criminal justice information;
  3. 4) develop a GIS overlay for mapping of criminal data trends; and
  4. 5) generate reports for community-based outreach of crime-related information.

1. Mayor Davison, Chairman Davis, Judge Stephens, and Chief Jimmy Williamson signed the required Letter of Intent on behalf of the planning partners.
2. CJCC accepted the circuit's Letter of Intent which allowed the circuit to apply for funding. The application was due on or before September 1, 2009.
3. Staff from the following departments representing the Western Judicial Circuit completed training conducted by SEARCH, the National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics, on August 24 and 25: UGA Police; ACCUG Manager’s Office, Police, Sheriff, Computer Information Services, and Courts; and Oconee County Sheriff and Information Technology. SEARCH is a national nonprofit partially funded by the Department of Justice that provides onsite assistance to state and local justice and public safety agencies to help identify and to solve information management challenges. The session focused on the benefits of and process for a criminal justice data exchange project, the driving forces behind information sharing, the development of a governance structure for managing this project, and the mapping process supported by the federal government.
4. Based on the interactions working with the Western Judicial Planning group representatives, SEARCH staff has provided a report that includes recommendations on a governance structure and suggestions on how to begin the implementation.  
5. The Western Judicial Circuit received funding to begin the development of an Integrated Criminal Justice Information Sharing System (ICJIS).