City of Providence, Central Falls Sue U.S. Dept. of Justice Over Public Safety Grants

GoLocalProv News Team

City of Providence, Central Falls Sue U.S. Dept. of Justice Over Public Safety Grants

Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza
The City of Providence and the City of Central Falls filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking a Temporary Restraining Order to prevent President Donald Trump’s administration from imposing “new, inappropriate conditions on certain public safety grants for law enforcement.”

“The current administration in Washington claims to support public safety, but then inexplicably and maliciously targets the very grants that support our local police departments. This absurd approach undermines community policing and would make us all less safe. Local police should be focused on preventing serious crime, not shaking down people who forgot to use their turn signal. We are filing this suit alongside the City of Central Falls because the federal administration's plan would hinder the already demanding work of our police department and increase the risk for all residents. Providence is a welcoming city, we will stand by our values, and we will fight the federal government's illegal and unconstitutional overreaching,” said Mayor Jorge Elorza.

Read the Lawsuit HERE

The Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant created in 2005 and named for Edward Byrne, a New York City police officer killed while protecting a Guyanese immigrant, provides state and local police departments throughout the country with funding for crime prevention and education, planning, evaluation, technology improvement, and crime victim and witness initiatives as well as other programs.

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

New DOJ Initiatives

The DOJ has imposed new conditions this past year that must be met by states and local municipalities in order to receive this grant funding.

Central Falls Mayor James Diossa
The conditions include the certification of compliance with 8 U.S.C. § 1373, a federal statute that bars restrictions on federal-local sharing of immigration status information; unlimited access to local police stations and law enforcement facilities by U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel to interrogate arrestees; and the requirement that cities provide DHS with at least a 48 hour notice prior to an arrestee’s release, which would require detaining residents longer than is permissible under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Past Funding to Providence and Central Falls

The Providence Police Department was awarded $212,112 for FY17 and has historically used Byrne JAG program funding to contract with Family Service of Rhode Island for the services of a part-time Bilingual Police Liaison and pay personnel (overtime) to conduct targeted enforcement patrols.

The Central Falls Police Department was awarded a Byrne JAG award for FY17 in for $28,677.

Central Falls has used Byrne JAG funding for a variety of purposes, including $28,961 in 2016 for internet access and tablets for detectives; $25,257 in 2015 for upgrades to the police servers; $26,301 in 2014 for upgrades to video cameras as well as upgrades to their radio and digital recording systems in past years.

“At the heart of Central Falls' turnaround in recent years has been the community-oriented nature of our police department, made, in part, possible by Byrne JAG funding. We are hopeful that the federal court will order that Central Falls can continue to receive this important funding without the requirement that our police officers become agents of a broken, federal immigration system,” said Central Falls Mayor James Diossa.

Several other U.S. cities filed similar lawsuits over the issue including Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City. 


GoLocal Statewide Poll - Conducted by Harvard's Della Volpe - June, 2018

Enjoy this post? Share it with others.