Over $1 million awarded to address various types of crime
Mayor Jim Suttle today announced the City of Omaha has received three grant awards to address several public safety issues.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE - Grant to Encourage Arrest Policies & Enforcement of Protection Orders
In partnership with the Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, the City of Omaha received $750,000 in funding from the Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women to address the issue of domestic violence. This funding brings the total amount of domestic violence-related funding to over $3.2 million in recent years.
This grant will provide funding for direct victim services and the investigation and prosecution of domestic violence incidents. The grant also provides funding to develop and establish a comprehensive victim service and support center designed to bring together law enforcement officers, prosecutors, probation officers and other relevant public or private organizations into a centralized location, in order to improve safety, access to services, and confidentiality for victims and families.
WEED & SEED
The City received its third year of funding for the Northeast Omaha Weed and Seed Strategy from the Department of Justice Community Capacity Development Office, in the amount of $144,000, totaling $469,000 over the past three years. The premise of Weed and Seed is to ‘weed’ out crime in geographically targeted areas of town, ‘seed’ in components of community restoration and human services, and create a proactive community policing model to bridge the gap between ‘weeding’ and ‘seeding’ activities. This grant will allow the City to coordinate law enforcement, community policing, youth programming activities, and neighborhood restoration in the Northeast Omaha Weed and Seed target area.
OFFICE OF VIOLENCE PREVENTION GRANT
Omaha received $290,000 from the newly formed State of Nebraska Office of Violence Prevention.
The grant will provide funding for violence prevention and intervention programs at the Omaha Police Department, Douglas County Attorney’s Office, Urban League of Nebraska, Boys and Girls Club of the Midlands and Impact One Community Connection.
“Each of these grants gives the Omaha Police Department and other local agencies more of the tools they need to increase public safety and to assist our citizens at a time when they are in the most need of help,” added Mayor Suttle.
The ceremony, held at the fire fighters memorial statue west of Lewis & Clark Landing, featured an honor guard and remarks by Mayor Jim Suttle, Fire Chief Mike McDonnell and Omaha Professional Fire Fighters Association Local #385 President Steve LeClair. 
