National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center - Alaska

In 2009 The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) competitively awarded grant funded operations of the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Alaska Regional Center (NLECTC - AK) to the Alaska Association of Chiefs of Police, Inc. (AACOP), extending the outreach and support activities of the National Institute of Justice's National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) System to Alaska. This proposal seeks 2010 continuation funding to operate the center through federal fiscal year 2011. AACOP will continue to provide NIJ funded staff to operate the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center Alaska; providing NIJ with "feet on the ground" in Alaska. NLECTC-AK and the AACOP Executive Staff will continue supporting NIJ, the NIJ Centers of Excellence, and other NLECTC Centers by jointly conducting outreach and support activities throughout Alaska, as well as gathering regional criminal justice stakeholder technology needs to include within the NIJ research and development process. Leveraging the vast network of agencies and important criminal justice organizations represented by the existing AACOP Executive Board, and their in-kind support for travel and meeting attendance provided by their organizations, NLECTC-AK will continue to extend its regional support to NIJ through volunteer services from highly experienced, technology-savvy criminal justice leaders. Alaska is an enormous state where most communities are not connected by a road system. With severely limited resources, our effort has been nicknamed "Long Distant Law Enforcement." AACOP recognizes the fact that all of criminal justice community must work together and share resources to accomplish our goals. It is AACOP's belief that by working together as Alaskans do, they can accomplish a multitude of tasks and problem solving much more effectively. ca/ncf

This project continues the operation of the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC)- Regional's/Resource Outreach Center (ROC) for Alaska Criminal Justice Agencies, with a "stream-lined" NLECTC Regional System, with staff working from "virtual" offices. This approach provides more value for less cost by optimizing regional outreach from a centralized, coordinated source, and realizes cost efficiencies through the elimination of redundant operations. It also leverages current operation of NLECTC-National, which currently provides overarching support to the Regional Centers. Other program structure advantages include the following: -Consolidation of existing subject-matter expertise within the system to maintain continuity of operations as well as refocusing advisory group efforts on regional advocacy and technology needs/requirements development. - Provision of greater access to a broader constituency base through the development of a single, system-wide marketing strategy tailored to meet specific constituent needs and the implementation of innovative, cost-effective Web-based tools to allow for feedback from constituents regarding marketing strategy efficacy. - Identification and incorporation of region-specific needs into the National Institute of Justice's (NIJ's) research, development, testing, and evaluation (RDT&E) process while a the same time maintaining a focus on the needs of Alaska agencies, thus building new partnerships and enhancing existing ones. -Coordination of regionally based NIJ research and development (R&D) expos (i.e., technology fairs) to receive feedback on projects and build new partnerships. -Offering an expanded slate of national and regional law enforcement, corrections and forensics conferences and trade shows, collaborating with the Centers of Excellence to showcase their R&D projects at these events. nca/ncf