§10156 Formula

Summary

The Attorney General must split the program money among the States using two equal parts. One half is divided by each State’s share of the U.S. population. The other half is divided by each State’s share of the average annual number of Part 1 violent crimes reported to the FBI for the three most recent years. If that method would give any State less than 0.25% of the total, every State first gets 0.25% and the rest is split by the two formulas leaving out those minimum-amount States. From each State’s share, 60% goes for direct State grants and 40% goes for grants to local governments. A State may keep an amount that matches its share of criminal-justice spending compared with total state plus local spending; the rest goes to local units. Local grants are divided by each local unit’s share of Part 1 violent crimes in the State over the three most recent years. Special rules cover annexed areas, certain large cost burdens (with thresholds of 150% and 400%), and the years 2006–2008 under an older method. No local unit can get more than it spent on criminal justice; any excess is spread to others. If a local allocation is under $10,000, the State grant is increased to cover those small amounts and state police or small local units get the money. A local unit must have at least three years of Part 1 crime data in the past 10 years to qualify. If a State won’t or can’t take its funds, the Attorney General gives that money to local areas in the State, starting with those with the highest three-year Part 1 crime totals. Puerto Rico receives 100% as direct grants to its government and the state/local split rules do not apply there. In Louisiana, “unit of local government” means a district attorney or parish sheriff. Part 1 violent crimes also include severe forms of trafficking in persons (defined in 22 U.S.C. 7102).