Justice Department Announces $139 Million for Law Enforcement Hiring to Advance Community Policing | USAO-MA

BOSTON – The Justice Department has allocated $ 139 million in grants to provide direct funding to 183 law enforcement agencies across the country to recruit 1,066 additional full-time law enforcement officers. In the District of Massachusetts, three communities received a total of $ 750,000 in grants.

“Community policing has been shown to protect the community by building trust and preventing crime,” said Nathaniel R. Mendell, the acting US attorney. “This funding will allow law enforcement agencies to step up policing in the community, which is good news for the people of Massachusetts.”

“We are committed to providing law enforcement agencies with the resources they need to keep the community safe and build community trust,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The grants we are announcing will enable law enforcement agencies across the country to recruit more than 1,000 additional officers to support vital community-based police programs.”

The following communities in the District of Massachusetts have received awards:

• City of Fitchburg – $ 250,000
• Granby City – $ 125,000
• City of Plainville – $ 375,000

The Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) COPS Hiring Program (CHP) is a competitive hiring program that aims to reduce crime and improve public safety through community policing. CHP provides funds directly to law enforcement agencies to recruit new or additional professional law enforcement officers. Of the 183 agencies that have received grants, around half will use the funds to focus on building legitimacy and trust between law enforcement agencies and communities; 41 agencies will attempt to combat high rates of gun violence; 21 will focus on other areas of violence; and 19 will focus on combating hatred and domestic extremism or supporting police-supported responses to people in crisis. The full list of awards can be found here: https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/2021AwardDocs/chp/Award_List.pdf

Since its inception in 1994, COPS has invested more than $ 14 billion to advance policing in the community, including grants to more than 13,000 state, local and indigenous law enforcement agencies to fund the recruitment and redeployment of more than 135,000 officers .

To find out more about CHP, please visit https://cops.usdoj.gov/chp-award. You can find more information about the COPS office at https://cops.usdoj.gov/.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/justice-department-announces-139-million-law-enforcement-hiring-advance-community