The Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office now has $1.1 million in federal money to go after organized retail theft and to help survivors of labor trafficking. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier handed over two ceremonial checks at the county Board of Supervisors meeting this week, Patch reported.

Where the money goes

The larger award, $600,000, pays for an Organized Retail Theft Prevention and Prosecution Unit inside the DA's office. In announcing the funding earlier this year, DeSaulnier's office said the unit is meant to respond to rising retail theft and help local police handle those cases. Organized theft rings often work across city, county and state lines, which makes them harder for a single police department to tackle.

The other $500,000 supports a project the county calls Healing and Justice for Labor Trafficking Survivors. According to DeSaulnier's office, it is meant to help identify and refer more survivors, give the DA more capacity to investigate labor exploitation, and improve services for victims who are often hard to reach.

District Attorney Diana Becton said in a statement released with the original announcement that the theft money would help her office "hold offenders accountable" and "disrupt organized criminal enterprises," and that the trafficking project would "remove barriers to recovery" for survivors.

Part of a bigger package

The two DA grants are among eight Contra Costa projects sharing about $8.3 million in federal community project funding sponsored by DeSaulnier and Rep. John Garamendi, according to Patch. The rest of the list is mostly bricks and mortar:

  • $2 million to furnish and equip a new 21,000-square-foot Bay Point Library and Community Resource Center at Bailey Road and Maylard Avenue.
  • $1.9 million to replace 11 aging backup generators for the East Bay Regional Communications System, the radio network first responders use, and let all 15 sites take trailer-mounted generators.
  • $1.2 million for the Marsh Drive bikeway in Pacheco, closing a 1.3-mile gap in the county bike network.
  • $1 million for safety work on the Treat Boulevard corridor near the Pleasant Hill/Contra Costa Centre BART station.
  • $850,000 for sidewalks and a two-way cycle track on North Bailey Road in Bay Point, plus $250,000 for Safe Routes to School work on Pacifica Avenue.

The money came through the federal spending package the House approved on Feb. 3, which ended a four-day partial government shutdown, according to a county memo cited by Patch.