COPS Hiring Grant Program
3/16/2009
The Recovery Act included $1 billion for the COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) hiring grant program. The solicitation for that program – the COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP) – is open on-line at www.cops.usdoj.gov. In addition to the application, the COPS website also has a number of supporting documents and information about CHRP that may be of interest to constituents, including a fact sheet, FAQs, a podcast, and an application guide.
Highlights from the CHRP include:
- CHRP grant solicitation opens March 16, 2009 and closes April 14, 2009.
- CHRP is a competitive grant program that provides funding directly to law enforcement agencies having primary law enforcement authority to create and preserve jobs and to increase their community policing capacity and crime-prevention efforts.
- Up to $1 billion in grant funding will be available for the hiring and rehiring of additional career law enforcement officers.
- There is no local match requirement for CHRP, but grant funding will be based on current entry-level salary and benefits packages and therefore any additional costs for higher salaries or benefits for particular individuals hired will be the responsibility of the grantee agency.
- CHRP grants will provide 100 percent funding for approved entry-level salaries and benefits for 3 years (36 months) for newly-hired, full-time sworn officer positions (including filling existing unfunded vacancies) or for rehired officers who have been laid off, or are scheduled to be laid off on a future date, as a result of local budget cuts.
*In addition, there is no cap on the number of positions an agency may request, but awards will be limited to available funding. Please be mindful of the initial 3-year grant period and your agency's ability to fill the officer positions awarded, while following your agency's established hiring policies and procedures.
- At the conclusion of federal funding, grantees must retain all sworn officer positions awarded under the CHRP grant. The retained CHRP-funded position(s) should be added to the grantees law enforcement budget with state and/or local funds, over and above the number of locally-funded positions that would have existed in the absence of the grant.