FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE??????????????????????? Contact:?????????? Office of Communications????????

TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2003????????????????????????????????????? ??????????? Office of Justice Programs

www.ojp.usdoj.gov

Linda Mansour 202-616-3534???????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Main Office: 202-307-0703

COPS Office

www.cops.usdoj.gov

Maria Carolina Rozas 202-616-1728

MINNESOTA RECEIVED MORE THAN $68 MILLION

FROM JUSTICE DEPARTMENT LAST YEAR

WASHINGTON, D.C. ? The State of Minnesota received more than $68.2 million from the Justice Department in Fiscal Year 2002 to assist with criminal justice activities, according to a report released by the Department today. For the second consecutive year, the Justice Department is providing an annual report detailing all funding the Department?s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office have awarded to each state and territory.? The report is available online at:? www.ojp.usdoj.gov/fy2002grants and www.cops.usdoj.gov

?We are committed to making federal funding information available to federal, state, and local officials so they can make informed decisions about allocating resources to their programs,? said Attorney General John Ashcroft.? ?By partnering with Minnesota?s state and local policymakers, we can invest our funds wisely to ensure public safety.?

Minnesota?s funding was part of a total of more than $5.47 billion that the Justice Department awarded to every state and territory.? The Justice Department awarded states and territories $249.77 million more in Fiscal Year 2002 than in Fiscal Year 2001.? The majority of states received increased funding. Minnesota received an additional $1.7 million in Fiscal Year 2002.?

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The majority of funds a state receives usually come from larger grants awarded to states based on population, so heavily populated states received more funding than less populated states.? The funding report also includes discretionary grants that are awarded competitively to communities or nonprofit agencies including faith-based organizations.

Minnesota?s largest funding category was law enforcement.? Nearly $32 million of the total amount was awarded for initiatives such as hiring and training police officers, training emergency first responders and purchasing equipment.? Funds awarded by the COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) Office are included in this category as are the Bulletproof Vest Program grants, which are new to the report this year.? The COPS Office provides grant funding to advance community policing in jurisdictions across the country.

The next largest category, at $8.97 million, was substance abuse.? Funds were awarded for interdiction and enforcement efforts and prevention and drug treatment programs, including drug courts. Counterterrorism activities, a new functional area added to the report this year, received $8.2 million and $8.67 million went to juvenile justice.? The counterterrorism category includes money for training emergency first responders and purchasing equipment, as well as research and development of counterterrorism technology.? Juvenile justice funds include money for delinquency prevention programs such as mentoring and reducing gang violence.? The majority of funding in the victims category ($8.45 million) goes directly to the state to provide compensation and assistance for crime victims and to combat domestic violence and sexual assault.

A large portion of the community-based category funding, $2.21 million last year, is provided through the Weed and Seed program.? Weed and Seed is a strategy that aims to prevent, control and reduce violent crime, drug abuse and gang activity in targeted high-crime neighborhoods.

The Justice Department report lists specific grantees within the state alphabetically by city within six functional areas and summary information for each city. There is also a separate listing of all grants to the state alphabetically by city.

Minnesota?s Fiscal Year 2002 funding report and the reports for other states are available only on the OJP and COPS Office Web sites at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/fy2002grants and www.cops.usdoj.gov, respectively.? For more information about Minnesota?s funding contact the Minnesota State Administering Agencies located on OJP?s Website at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/state.htm? Information about the COPS Office and its programs can be found at www.cops.usdoj.gov

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