BRAINTREE — Chief Mark Dubois is pleased to announce that the Braintree Police Department has been awarded a total of $65,000 in federal grant funds allocated by the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security’s Office of Grants and Research (OGR).
The Braintree Police Department received a $25,000 grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and a $40,000 grant from the Edward J. Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program.
The JAG grant will be used to fund equipment for the department’s covert operations. The equipment purchased through the JAG grant will provide the department with new technological tools, as well as supplement the inventory of existing tools that are widely used by the Braintree Police Department’s Investigative Bureau.
“Advancements in technology continue to assist investigators in their collection of evidence to be used to further investigations and are critical to the safety of the Braintree Police investigators throughout investigations,” Chief Dubois said. “The equipment purchased with these funds will be instrumental in ensuring that the department not only provides investigators with the equipment they need to continue to do their jobs, but to ensure the safety of the investigators.”
The NHTSA funds will be used for equipment and traffic safety enforcement activities. Approximately $6,400 will be used to purchase new handheld radar units to replace the department’s aging inventory of radar units. The remainder of the NHTSA grant will be used for enforcement activities that coincide with the NHTSA’s national enforcement campaigns throughout the year.
“The primary goal of these national traffic safety campaigns is to make the streets of Braintree safer for motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians, and we are thankful for the NHTSA funds that will allow us to continue our participation in these campaigns,” Deputy Chief Timothy Cohoon said.
The grants were part of $7.8 million in funding that the Baker-Polito Administration allocated to provide access to equipment and strengthen training, crime prevention and enforcement initiatives across the Commonwealth.
The JAG program provided $4.6 million to fund needs such as protective equipment and communications infrastructure. The NHTSA provided $3.2 million to fund traffic enforcement campaigns, safety equipment, and non-enforcement activities to help reduce vehicle crashes and the resulting injuries and loss of life. The funds are allocated to local agencies by the OGR.
The Braintree Police Department is among more than 160 law enforcement agencies across the Commonwealth that were awarded grant funding.
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