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Criminal Justice & Public Safety Funding

CAPCOG’s Criminal Justice Program is designated by the Office of the Governor’s Criminal Justice Division (CJD) for regional coordination efforts on the subject in the 10-county State Planning Region 12. The program provides technical assistance to applicants for CJD grant funding opportunities to include criminal justice, juvenile justice and victim services-related programming.

CAPCOG’s Criminal Justice Program and Criminal Justice Advisory Committee review and update, or create a regional strategic criminal justice plan every. The program also facilitates the grant application scoring an process through the Criminal Justice Advisory Committee. Each year application scoring done by the committee is based on local, regional and state priorities.

Office of the Governor, Criminal Justice Division, funding opportunities

Plan Year 2027

Plan Year (PY) 2027 began in as early as August 2024, with an entirely new CAPCOG Criminal Justice Strategic Plan being drafted. The five-year plan lays the foundation for the the region’s priorities for the criminal justice funding opportunities.

This year, as with previous years, CAPCOG is coordinating the grant recommendation process the following funding opportunities:

  • Criminal Justice Program
  • General Victim Assistance Direct Service Program
  • Juvenile Justice and Truancy Prevention Grant Program
  • Violence Against Women Justice and Training Program

The CAPCOG Regional Funding Priorities for the OOG’s criminal justice funding opportunities were established as part of the 2025-30 CAPCOG Regional Criminal Justice Plan. The were determined through community stakeholder input and by the advisement of the CJAC and the CAPCOG Executive Committee.

Modernize and Strengthen the Criminal Justice System Infrastructure and capacity to enhance community safety.

Top Priorities

  1. Training for Law Enforcement
  2. Equipment for Law Enforcement
  3. Victim Services
  4. Violence Prevention
  5. Employee Recruitment/Retention
  6. Family Violence Investigation.

Strengthen Youth Prevention and Intervention Programs

Top Priorities

  1. Violence prevention
  2. Mentoring
  3. Substance abuse prevention
  4. Truancy prevention
  5. Vaping prevention.

Expand and enhance access to mental health and substance abuse services, with a focus on crisis intervention and treatment availability.

Top Priorities

  1. Crisis Intervention Services
  2. Crisis Residential Centers
  3. Counseling/ Therapy
  4. Alternatives to Incarceration
  5. School Based Prevention Programs

Enhance access to trauma-informed, culturally competent victim services across the region, with targeted support for mental health, crisis intervention, and emergency shelter.

Top Priorities

  1. Crisis Intervention Services
  2. Mental Health Assistance (Counseling/Therapy)
  3. Shelters
  4. Advocacy
  5. Affordable Housing Options

Promote Diversion and Reentry Solutions

Top Priorities

  1. Crisis Intervention Services
  2. Mental Health Assistance (Counseling/Therapy)
  3. Alternatives to Incarceration
  4. School Based Prevention Programs
  5. Violence prevention

Listed below are links to the request for applications (RFAs), and the applications’ opening and deadline dates for each funding opportunity.

Staff Contact

Karina Trevino

Grant Application & Summary Sheet Deadline

Grant Applications for the four funding opportunities are due in egrants by Feb. 12, 2026. The corresponding CAPCOG Project Summary Sheets must also be submitted by the same time.

Complete a Project Summary Sheet.

Important Documents & Other Information

Criminal Justice Grant Program Timeline
This timeline is subject to change.

PY 2027 Workshop Reminders

2025-30 Criminal Justice Strategic Plan

PY 2027 CJAC Policy Statement

PY 2027 Project Summary Sheet Worksheet

PY 2027 Project Summary Sheet Worksheet

PY 2027 CJAC Scoring Criteria

PY 2027 CJAC Score Sheets

Criminal Justice Advisory Committee (CJAC)

Criminal Justice Resources

Office of the Governor’s egrants.gov

eGrants User Guide

The Office of the Governor is expected to release the RFA’s in mid-December.

Criminal Justice Program | Read the RFA | Available Date: Dec. 15, 2025 | Deadline Date: Feb. 12, 2026

General Victim Assistance Direct Service Program | Read the RFA | Available Date: Dec. 15, 2025 | Deadline Date: Feb. 12, 2026

Juvenile Justice and Youth Diversion (formerly Truancy Prevention) Grant Program | RFA coming soon | Available Date: Dec. 15, 2025 | Deadline Date: Feb. 12, 2026

Violence Against Women Justice and Training Program | Read the RFA | Available Date: Dec. 15, 2025 | Deadline Date: Feb. 12, 2026

*The OOG may change the RFAs after they are posted. CAPCOG will update them as notified. Check egrants.gov.texas.gov for updates.

Project Summary Sheets

As part of it criminal justice funding recommendation process, CAPCOG requests applicants to any of the four funding opportunities submit a project summary sheet. The project summary sheets aid CJAC members with evaluating each application and give project applications points toward their score.

CAPCOG has developed a worksheet to help applicants prepare their project summary sheets. It highlights all the questions that appear in the online submission summary sheet form. The worksheet is not to be turned in with the summary sheet. Get the worksheet.

Submit a Project Summary Sheet

Plan Year 2026 Timeline and Meetings

Each year, CAPCOG develops a timeline to help stakeholders and applicants plan their schedules around key grant related event dates and prepare for application related deadlines. The timeline runs from when CAPCOG started it stakeholder survey in September 2024 and goes to when CAPCOG must submit its prioritized list of grant recommendations — May 2025. The timeline contains exact and tentative dates. CAPCOG will update the timeline as the grant process continues.

Download the Timeline.

Request for Applications Released – Dec. 15, 2025

CAPCOG anticipates that the Office of the Governor will release the RFAs for each funding opportunity on December 15. Information will be updated here, but the RFAs should be read from egrants.

Application Deadline – Feb. 12, 2026

Applications for the funding opportunities are due to the state on Feb. 12, 2026 through the egrants portal.

Apply online.

Project Summary Sheet Deadline – Feb. 12, 2026

CAPCOG will accept project summary sheets until February 12. These project summary sheets are part of the CAPCOG evaluation process and help the Criminal Justice Advisory Committee understand an application and the project they support.

Applicants that submit a project summary sheets receive 10 points if they are submitted by Feb. 12, 2026.

The CJAC will review the summary sheets before the presentation meetings.

Submit a Project Summary Sheet.

CAPCOG has developed a worksheet to help applicants prepare their project summary sheets. It highlights all the questions that appear in the online submission summary sheet form. The worksheet is not to be turned in with the summary sheet. Get the worksheet.

Presentations – March 23-24, 2026

CAPCOG will host all eligible applicants to present their projects to the CJAC. Each funding opportunity category will be presented on a particular day, which will be chosen based on the number of applicants per funding category. Applicants will have a certain amount of time to make their presentations and the CJAC will ask questions. More details and a schedule of presentations will be released at a later date.

CAPCOG Executive Committee Prioritization – April 8, 2026 

The CAPCOG Executive Committee will review the scores and ranking of the project applications as submitted from the CJAC during its regular meeting. The board may change the prioritization ranking of any project application before it is submits the final ranking to the Office of the Governor before May 9, 2025

Other important dates are included in the PY 2027 Criminal Justice Timeline.

CAPCOG Grant Workshops – Jan. 6 & 7, 2026

CAPCOG conducted two grant writing workshops — one in-person and one virtual. Each workshop provided an in-depth walkthrough of the CAPCOG criminal justice grant process for Plan Year (PY) 2027 that informed attendees about the funding opportunities’ applicant and project eligibility requirements; the state and CAPCOG’s application process; and CAPCOG’s prioritization, review and evaluation process.

Based on the workshops, CAPCOG drafted a list of important items to remembers when applying to the funding opportunities. Download the list.

Participation in a grant workshop is associated with five points toward an application score.

CAPCOG has made a recording of the workshop available for applicants to review. Watching the recording will not grant the five application points, but it will provide greater insight into the application process.

Watch the Video

Plan Year 2026 Documents & Workshops
Plan Year 2025 Documents & Workshops
Plan Year 2024
Plan Year 2023

Other Funding

Opportunities

Funding opportunity for criminal justice related programs can occur year around. Entities seeking such grants to support their criminal justice operations should routinely check some of the sites listed below. CAPCOG also has highlighted a few opportunities for which local jurisdictions maybe should be eligible.

Highlighted Grants

Bullet-Resistant Components for Law Enforcement Vehicles, FY 2026

Funds from this opportunity may only be used for obtaining and installing bullet-resistant windshields, side windows, rear windows, and door panels compliant with the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Level IIIA or higher into motor vehicles used by peace officers.

Award Maximum: None
Deadline: Nov. 11, 2025
Opportunity through the Office of the Governor.