Federal Grant Funding for UPSET

The Upper Peninsula Substance Enforcement Team has received financial support from Washington, D.C. that will help it get through another year.

UPSET has just received about $305,000 from the Justice Department.

The money comes through the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant, or JAG, program.

The money covers many of the costs that UPSET racks up in the 12 U.P. counties that it covers.

State Police Det. Lt. George Sailer says it covers 50% of the salaries of 6 officers and some support staff.

The Justice Department pulled the plug on the JAG program in 2008 but later restored the funding.

It accounts for a large part of upset’s budget, but there are overhead costs the JAG funding doesn’t cover.

Det. Lt. Sailer says those include cars, cell phones and other equipment.

He says the JAG funding accounts for about half of UPSET’s budget each year.

Until a couple of years ago, UPSET used its Byrne JAG funds to help local agencies and state police cover the cost of providing staff to them.

But those agencies now have to cover most of the costs on their own.