DOJ awards nearly $400 million to state law enforcement agencies
The Department of Justice announced nearly $400 million in grant funding through the department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services hiring program.
U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr announced funding awards to 596 law enforcement agencies across the nation, which allows those agencies to hire 2,732 additional full-time law enforcement professionals.
The awards include the $51 million announced in May as part of Operation Relentless Pursuit.
“The Department of Justice is committed to providing the police chiefs and sheriffs of our great nation with needed resources, tools, and support,” Barr said. “The funding announced will bolster their ranks and contribute to expanding community policing efforts nationwide.
“A law enforcement agency’s most valuable assets are the men and women who put their lives on the line every day in the name of protecting and serving their communities,” he said.
“We are pleased that these grants, which total over $2 million, will allow law enforcement agencies to hire 18 new positions within their respective departments in the Eastern District of Tennessee,” said U.S. Attorney J. Douglas Overbey.
“The grants were awarded to these departments: The city of Alcoa, Bradley County Sheriff’s Department, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department, the town of Jonesborough, LaFollette Police Department, Manchester Police Department, McMinnville Police Department, and the Union County Sheriff’s Department,” Overbey said.
“I am confident that our local law enforcement agencies and communities will be able to use these new resources to protect and serve the citizens of East Tennessee even more effectively. The [hiring program] is a competitive award program intended to reduce crime and advance public safety through community policing and by providing direct funding for the hiring of career law enforcement officers.
Grant applicants were required to identify a specific crime and disorder focus area and explain how the funding would implement community policing approaches to the problem area.
Forty-three percent of the awards announced will focus on violent crime, while the remainder will focus on issues including school-based policing to fund school resource officer positions; building trust and respect; and opioid education, prevention, and intervention.
The COPS Office received nearly 1,100 applications requesting over 4,000 law enforcement positions.
The complete list of awards can be found here at https://cops.usdoj.gov/chp-award
To learn more about CHP, please visit https://cops.usdoj.gov/chp. For additional information about the COPS Office, please visit www.cops.usdoj.gov.
