Local law enforcement

block grant spending

Reaches public forum

By RICK RUSSELL

The Daily News

Memphis and Shelby County residents will have a rare opportunity today to play a significant role in crime fighting and prevention.

Law enforcement and government officials are seeking input from the public in how $2.3 million in federal law enforcement grants should be distributed to counter the rising crime rates of Memphis.

It is vital for us to receive input from the community in these matters. I can assure the community their ideas as to how we can improve our community are taken very seriously by the committees who are deciding how this money will be spent, said Peggy Edminston, Shelby County director of the division of community services.

The public meeting is in the Memphis Board of Education Auditorium, 2597 Avery Ave., from 6 to 8 p.m.

This is the seventh year Memphis and Shelby County received the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant. Previous funding spawned such initiatives as a Truancy Assessment Center, the formation of gang-related task force teams, increased treatment for drug users through the Drug Court, neighborhood watch programs and enhanced prosecution of domestic violence programs.

By tapping into the local community, we can gain a more intimate insight into how we can best address the problems facing our community, Edminston said.

With the meeting scheduled on the heels of a two-month stretch of crime in which children were gunned down in gangland fashion on city streets, and with the public still reeling with outrage, Edminston said she expects the turnout for this year to exceed the modest crowds of concerned citizens who have attended the meetings of previous years.

Federal block grant programs, such as the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant, are designed to allow cities more freedom and flexibility to spend federal dollars.

There are still parameters and guidelines attached to the block grant, but it is much more flexible, and gives the public the opportunity to bring innovative ideas to the table, on a greater number of topics, Edminston said.

In light of the increasing threat of terrorist attacks, much of the burden of fighting domestic crime has been shifted from federal agencies to local law enforcement, placing a much greater emphasis and involvement in crime prevention in the hands of the local citizen.

Clouding the picture, while the overall crime rate of Memphis has increased from last year, the federal block grant was cut sharply from the $3.2 million the city received last year.

The federal crime fighting dollar will have to be stretched a little farther to accommodate our needs, Edminston said.

The federal grant is distributed through formula allocations to states based on local criminal statistics. But with federal dollars being reallocated to counter looming threats of terrorism, coupled with the daunting possibility of a complete overhaul of the federal intelligence community, the fiscal support of domestic crime prevention will likely continue to fall comparatively short from previous commitments.