COPS Grant Provides Funding to Hire Additional Police Officers

After The Hill reported that the White House Transition Team has proposed a budget blueprint, which would eliminate the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), Representative Sean Patrick Maloney joined local civic and law enforcement officials to call on President Donald Trump to keep his campaign promise to support our law enforcement community and refrain from eliminating the federal Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office. In addition, Rep. Maloney wrote a letter to the President asking him to protect the program. The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) COPS program provides investments to allow state and local police departments to hire police officers, test new strategies, and acquire cutting-edge technology.

“Talk is cheap and it’s easy to say you support our law enforcement officers on the campaign trail, but it’s time to put your money where your mouth is,” said Rep. Maloney. “Shortchanging the people who risk their lives every day to protect us from the bad guys is not the way to save a buck and it sends the message that the government doesn’t care about America’s finest.”

“My number one concern is keeping our people here in Middletown safe – and one of the ways we do that is maintaining a right-sized police force,” said Middletown Mayor Joe DeStefano. “We need the resources the COPS office provides to keep five officers on the street, and yanking that money away from us would immediately make Middletown less safe and would violate the President’s promise to retain law and order.”

“We’re very concerned about the possibility of losing funding for five officers,” said Acting Police Chief, John Ewanciw. “We have five more guys on the beat because of this funding and I hope the President will reconsider this move because it would seriously hurt local departments here in the Hudson Valley – and throughout the country.” 

Since taking office, Rep. Maloney has secured $1.6 million in COPS investments to local police departments. In 2014, Rep. Maloney announced a $500,000 COPS investment to allow the Newburgh Police Department to hire four new officers. In 2015, he announced a $600,000 investment for Poughkeepsie’s police department to hire five additional officers. Most recently, in 2016, he announced another $500,000 COPS investment in the Middletown police department to allow the department to hire four more police officers.

Created as part of the 1994 Crime Bill, the COPS Office awards grants to state and local law enforcement agencies to hire and train community policing professionals, acquire cutting-edge crime-fighting technologies, and develop and test innovative policing strategies. The budget blueprint referenced in media reports is based on recommendations from the Heritage Foundation, a special interest group, and calls for the total elimination of the program.

A full text of the letter can be found here