U.S. Department of Justice: FY 2022 COPS Hiring Program

The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) is the component of the U.S. Department of Justice responsible for advancing the practice of community policing by the nation’s state, local, territorial, and tribal law enforcement agencies. The COPS Hiring Program (CHP) is a competitive grant program designed to provide funding directly to law enforcement agencies to hire and/or rehire additional career law enforcement officers in an effort to increase their community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts.

Anticipated outcomes of the CHP include engagement in planned community partnerships, implementation of projects to analyze and assess problems, implementation of changes to personnel and agency management in support of community policing, and increased capacity of the agency to engage in community policing activities.

Applicants will be expected to describe their community policing strategy and request the number of newly hired and/or rehired full-time sworn career law enforcement officer positions necessary to support that strategy. COPS Office funding must be used to reorient the mission and activities of law enforcement agencies toward the community or enhance their involvement in community policing.

Funding under this program may be used for the following:

• Hire new officers, which includes filling existing officer vacancies no longer funded in the agency’s budget. These positions must be in addition to current budgeted level of sworn officer positions.
• Rehire officers laid off by any jurisdiction as a result of state, local, or Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) budget reductions.
• Rehire officers who are (at the time of application) currently scheduled to be laid off on a specific future date as a result of state, local, or BIA budget reductions.

An applicant may request funding in one or more of the above-referenced hiring categories under CHP. See solicitation for details and requirements of each category.

Amount: An estimated 185 awards will be made ranging up to $6,250,000 over a 60 month period of performance. Only 36 months of officer salary is chargeable to the award.

FY 2022 CHP awards will cover up to 75 percent of the entry-level salary and fringe benefits for each approved position for a three-year funding period, based on the applicant’s current entry level salary levels for full-time officers. There is a minimum 25 percent local cash match (cost share) requirement, unless a waiver is approved. The maximum federal share per officer position is $125,000 over the three-year period, (not $125,00 per year) unless a local match waiver is approved.

Eligibility: Eligible applicants include local, state, and tribal law enforcement agencies that have primary law enforcement authority.

Link: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=339485

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