COPS Office to Offer Online Assistance for Grantees

Washington, Nov. 17 – Congress gave law enforcement agencies plenty to cheer about last winter when it included $1 billion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to revive the popular but moribund Community Oriented Policing Services hiring program. The program allows police departments to hire or retain officers they would not otherwise be able to afford. Demand for those funds was strong, but the 1,044 successful applicants must now navigate the stringent requirements that come with their grant awards.

Administering a COPS hiring grant is no simple matter. Earlier this year, the Department of Justice announced a list of 26 law enforcement agencies that were banned from receiving COPS Recovery Act grants due to mistakes and unallowable expenditures those agencies incurred with previous COPS awards.