Title
Fiscal Year 2023 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Program Grant (Ordinance S-50488)
Description
Request retroactive authorization for the City Manager, or his designee, to allow the Police Department to apply for, accept, and enter into an agreement with the Bureau of Justice Assistance for the 2023 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes grant program in an amount of $400,000. Further request authorization for the City Treasurer to accept, and for the City Controller to disburse, all funds related to this item.
Report
Summary
In 2019, the FBI ranked the City of Phoenix sixth in violent crime per capita in the nation, per 100,000 residents. Phoenix remains consistent with the national trends of increasing violent crime. In calendar year 2022, Uniform Crime Reporting Part One Violent Crime increased three percent from 2021, with a significant increase in homicides (up 12.6 percent). This data highlights the need for the Phoenix Police Department to build a comprehensive, collaborative Information Center to enhance the capacity to combat violent crime in the largest city in Arizona. The Information Center will be a place to research, analyze, and locate organized groups and a location used to educate officers, prosecutors, and community groups on violent extremist groups in the Phoenix area.
Additionally, the Phoenix Police Department was selected into the National Public Safety Partnership (PSP) Program in 2021. Through this program, technical assistance and training has been brought to the City through the Bureau of Justice Assistance to reduce violent crime utilizing constitutionally sound methods and modalities. This funding will help the City of Phoenix respond to and identify gaps identified through the PSP Program with technology and data to identify crimes, case leads, and violent criminal activity and focus resources on the people and places associated with a high concentration of those crimes and areas of high victimization.
Contract Term
The contract term is Oct. 1, 2023 through Sept. 30, 2027.
Financial Impact
The eligible funding amount is $400,000. No matching funds are required. The cost to the City is in-kind resources only.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Assistant City Manager Lori Bays and the Police Department.