U.S. Department of Justice: Technology Innovation for Public Safety (TIPS)

The Technology Innovation for Public Safety (TIPS) program seeks to assist state, local, territorial, and tribal jurisdictions in enhancing their justice information-sharing capacity through the use of innovative technological solutions in order to allow them to more effectively address disproportional and precipitous increases in crime(s). While many jurisdictions are making progress implementing justice information-sharing solutions to address critical gaps in coordinating crime prevention across organizations and jurisdictions, there remains significant challenges that inhibit the ability of the criminal justice system to respond to threats to public safety, especially when it comes to addressing increases in crime(s). For this solicitation, justice information-sharing technology refers to any technology (hardware and/or software, hosted residentially or remotely) that plays a role in the collection, storage, sharing, and analysis of criminal justice data.

TIPS is designed to enable strategic information sharing across crime-fighting agencies and with identified partnerships to address specific local or regional crime problems. Often these efforts will require a multidisciplinary response, involving law enforcement, analysts/investigators, information technology staff, public safety/first responders, adjudications/courts, corrections, human services organizations, and other stakeholders. Applicants are encouraged to propose comprehensive plans that include coordination among multiple stakeholder agencies, shared investment and use of technology services or regional planning as appropriate. Goals of the program include to:

• Promote information sharing and collaboration within and among criminal justice agencies that have a role in response and and investigation of specific crime(s)
• Build partnerships between criminal justice agencies and nonprofit or for-profit organizations (including tribal nonprofit or for-profit organizations), faith-based and community organizations, and institutions of higher education (including tribal institutions of higher education) to assist in the prevention and reduction of specific crime(s)
• Develop and enhance policies and practices that promote decision making with the use of technology with the intent to reverse the increases of specific crime(s)
• Implement information-sharing solutions at the local, regional, state, tribal, and national levels that have a measureable positive impact on the specific crime trends
• Improving the quantity and quality of evidence-based justice information-sharing programs

Amount: A total of $4,000,000 is available to fund up to eight awards, ranging up $500,000 each. The project lengths is up to two years.

Eligibility: Public agencies of state governments, units of local government, federally recognized Indian tribal governments that perform law enforcement functions, or government agencies acting as fiscal agents for one of the previously listed eligible applicants. Applicants must propose solutions that will be deployed to jurisdictions that are currently experiencing precipitous or extraordinary increases in crime.

Link: http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=290551

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