The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) is offering the Antiterrorism and Emergency Assistance Program (AEAP) grant for providing emergency assistance, compensation, and support to victims of mass violence and terrorism.

To advance Executive Order 13929 Safe Policing for Safe Communities, the Attorney General determined that all state, local, and university or college law enforcement agencies must be certified by an approved independent credentialing body or have started the certification process to be eligible for FY 2022 DOJ discretionary grant funding. To become certified, the law enforcement agency must meet two mandatory conditions: (1) the agency’s use-of-force policies adhere to all applicable federal, state, and local laws and (2) the agency’s use-of-force policies prohibit chokeholds except in situations where use of deadly force is allowed by law. The certification requirement also applies to law enforcement agencies receiving DOJ discretionary grant funding through a subaward. For detailed information on this certification requirement, please visit https://cops.usdoj.gov/SafePolicingEO to access the Standards for Certification on Safe Policing for Safe Communities, the Implementation Fact Sheet, and the List of Designated Independent Credentialing Bodies.

All recipients and subrecipients (including any for-profit organization) must forgo any profit or management fee.

The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) supports victims of mass violence and terrorism through the Antiterrorism and emergency Assistance Program (AEAP). Funding for this program comes from the Antiterrorism Emergency Reserve (the Emergency Reserve). Along with non-grant training and technical assistance services, there are four types of grants that may be combined into one application: crisis response, consequence management, criminal justice support, and crime victim compensation.

AEAP grants are a mechanism by which the Director of OVC may award supplemental crime victim compensation and assistance to eligible entities responding to acts of mass criminal violence or domestic terrorism. The event must be sufficiently large that the jurisdiction cannot provide needed services to victims of the incident with existing resources, while also supporting victims of other crimes, in a timely and comprehensive manner.

AEAP funds may be used to provide emergency relief to benefit victims such as crisis response efforts, help victims adapt to and cope with the consequences of the event over the longer-term, and facilitate victim participation in the judicial process. AEAP can also supplement state crime victim compensation administrative agencies that reimburse victims for out-of-pocket expenses related to their victimization. Funding under this program is retroactive to the date of the incident. Justification for all funding must demonstrate that AEAP funds will support victims of the incident and are supplemental to existing resources. OVC may provide a no-cost consultant(s) to help the prospective grantee with the AEAP application process.

Statutory Authority: AEAP is authorized by 34 U.S.C. §§ 20101(d)(5) and 20105(b).