BOSTON – The Department of Justice has awarded $139 million in grants to provide direct funding to 183 law enforcement agencies across the nation to hire 1,066 additional full-time law enforcement professionals. In the District of Massachusetts, three communities were awarded funding totaling $750,000.
“Community policing is proven to protect the community by building trust and preventing crime,” said Acting United States Attorney, Nathaniel R. Mendell. “This funding will allow police departments to increase community policing, which his good news for the people of Massachusetts.”
“We are committed to providing police departments with the resources needed to help ensure community safety and build community trust,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The grants we are announcing will enable law enforcement agencies across the country to hire more than 1,000 additional officers to support vitally important community oriented policing programs.”
The following communities in the District of Massachusetts received awards:
The Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) COPS Hiring Program (CHP) is a competitive award program aimed at reducing crime and advancing public safety through community policing. CHP provides funds directly to law enforcement agencies to hire new or rehire additional career law enforcement officers, thereby increasing their community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts. Of the 183 agencies awarded grants, approximately half will use the funding to focus on building legitimacy and trust between law enforcement and communities; 41 agencies will seek to address high rates of gun violence; 21 will focus on other areas of violence; and 19 will focus on combating hate and domestic extremism or supporting police-based responses to persons in crisis. The complete list of awards can be found here: https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/2021AwardDocs/chp/Award_List.pdf
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 135,000 officers.
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/.
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