I am taking this opportunity to inform you that the Pinellas County SHeriff's Office and the St. Petersburg Police Department are proposing to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding delineating the amount of U.S. Department of Justice, Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) funds each will receive.

The information which follows provides information on the JAG, as well as the County's and the City's proposed use of JAG funds.

Background:
The County of Pinellas, Florida (County) and the City of St. Petersburg (City), Florida are units of local government appearing on the FY2008 Units of Local Government List as eligible to apply for Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) funds.

It has been determined that the County and City have a disparate allocation of JAG funds in that the City is scheduled to receive on and one half times more than the County, while the County bears more than 50% of the costs of incarceration that arise for Part 1 violent crimes reported by the geographically constituent units.

As a result of this disparate certification, the County and the City have agreed to submit a joint application for the aggregate of JAG funds ($160,486.00).

The County and the City will enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which will be faxed, as specified in the JAG Local Solicitation, to the Office of Justice Programs during the grant submission process.

The County and the City have agreed to allocate $80,243.00) each to the County and the City. The County will serve as the applicant and fiscal agent and will ensure that the application will be made public through the applicant's public web site. The City will provide the County with information to assist with the development of any fiscal and/or programmatic reports that will be required of the JAG program.

Use of funds:
Through this proposal the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office will continue to equip vehicles with Digital Video Recording technology. Digital in-car video recorders maximize effectiveness during routine patrol as the car mounted systems record data and capture incidents that can be digitally recorded, transferred and saved onto the system hard drive. This equipment will integrate with the laptop systems currently in the vehicles and will improved crime prevention activities, and will significantly improved in the officer's day to day efficiency and safety by providing them with a high quality video and sound with evidentiary value.

The St. Petersburg Police Department will use the budgeted amount of funds for numerous local initiatives that include community resources, personnel, equipment, supplies, investigative and operational costs relating to the Law Enforcement Services provided by the St. Petersburg Police Department.