(AUDUBON) – Today, Senator Donald Norcross, Assemblyman Angel Fuentes, and Assemblyman Gilbert “Whip” Wilson, of New Jersey’s Fifth Legislative District announced state funding for law enforcement agencies to purchase or replace body armor vests for public safety officers.
The Fifth Legislative District’s 19 current municipalities will receive a total of more than $59,000 from the state’s Body Armor Replacement Fund collected through a $1 surcharge on traffic tickets and forfeitures of bail. In addition, the county-wide public safety departments within Camden and Gloucester Counties will receive a total of over $69,000 from the fund. To see the full list of awardees and funding amounts, visit http://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases11/Distribution-County.pdf.
The Fifth District legislators have made public safety a top legislative priority. Senator Norcross and Assemblyman Wilson each serve on the Law and Public Safety Committees within their respective chambers. During this legislative session they worked together to make it easier for police and fire departments to rehire laid-off officers and firefighters, and earlier this year they supported Assemblyman Fuentes’ successful push to enact a modification of the state’s Drug Offender Restraining Order (DORO) law designed to equip law enforcement officials with new tools to keep drug dealers off our streets.
With the announcement of this funding, Norcross, Fuentes, and Wilson encourage all local police departments to make use of this program to help protect the men and women that protect and serve us everyday.