The Department of Justice today announced more than $139 million in grant funding through the department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) COPS Hiring Program (CHP). The awards provide direct funding to 180 law enforcement agencies across the nation, allowing those agencies to hire 973 additional full-time law enforcement professionals.
“As law enforcement agencies across the nation continue to experience recruitment and retention challenges, we are proud to provide these resources to help alleviate those challenges confronting the profession,” said COPS Office Acting Director Robert Chapman.
CHP is a competitive award program intended to reduce crime and advance public safety through community policing. CHP provides funds directly to law enforcement agencies to hire new or rehire additional career law enforcement officers and deputies to enhance their community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts. Of the 180 agencies awarded grants today, nearly half will use the funding to focus on building legitimacy and trust between law enforcement and communities; 30 agencies will seek to address high rates of gun violence; 26 will focus on other areas of violence; and 28 will focus CHP resources on combating hate and domestic extremism or supporting police-based responses to persons in crisis. The complete list of awards can be found here.
Since its creation in 1994, COPS has invested more than $14 billion to advance community policing, including grants awarded to more than 13,000 state, local and Tribal law enforcement agencies to fund the hiring and redeployment of more than 136,000 officers. CHP, COPS’ flagship program, continues to be in demand today: In FY22, COPS received 711 applications requesting more than 2,800 law enforcement positions.
To learn more about CHP, please visit https://cops.usdoj.gov/chp-award. For additional information about the COPS Office, please visit https://cops.usdoj.gov/.
The COPS Office is the federal component of the Department of Justice responsible for advancing community policing nationwide. The only Department of Justice agency with policing in its name, the COPS Office was established in 1994 and has been the cornerstone of the nation’s crime fighting strategy with grants, a variety of knowledge resource products, and training and technical assistance. Through the years, the COPS Office has become the go-to organization for law enforcement agencies across the country and continues to listen to the field and provide the resources that are needed to reduce crime and build trust between law enforcement and the communities served.
