Federal funding cuts continue to affect organizations across the country. Those cuts may now be impacting public safety and law enforcement in Arizona.
The Arizona Criminal Justice Commission promotes public safety, supports law enforcement, provides justice and victim services and coordinates grant funding. The National Criminal Justice Association supports the state agency but recently had its own funding cut.
Tony Vidale is the Arizona commission’s interim director. He says the national group plays a critical role, especially with grants.
“NCJA was instrumental in training us to know what things to not do and better yet what things to do, so that we were prepared when federal auditors come down. And so I'm very, very concerned about filling that gap,” he said.
Vidale says an evaluation is being done following the recent events.
“So what we're doing internally here is assessing what exactly we've lost by no longer having training and technical assistance through various grant programs that we have here,” he said.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes criticized the latest move and recently called on the DOJ to restore funding to the national group.
Vidale clarified that the commission’s own grants had not been cut. However, he expressed concern about the potential cascading impact of cuts to the national group.
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