U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose recently announced that hiring grants for community policing officers were awarded to two local law enforcement agencies in the Western District of North Carolina.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) COPS Hiring Program awarded $480,963 to the Haywood County Sheriff’s office to fund the hiring of four officers, and $375,000 to the Statesville Police Department to fund the hiring of three officers.
In making the announcement U.S. Attorney Rose said, “One of the Justice Department’s top priorities is to create safer neighborhoods by removing criminals from the streets and reducing violent and gun crime. The two hiring grants will provide our local law enforcement partners with the resources they need to strengthen their ability to fight violent crime and to protect the well-being of citizens in their communities.”
The Haywood County Sheriff’s Office and the Statesville Police Department were among the 179 law enforcement agencies across the nation awarded a combined 98,495,397 through the COPS Hiring Program.
The COPS Office is the component of the U.S. Department of Justice responsible for advancing the practice of community policing by providing grant funding directly to state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies to support hiring additional law enforcement officers for three years to address specific crime problems. Since 1994, the COPS Office has invested more than $14 billion to help advance community policing.
For a complete list of award recipients, please visit cops.usdoj.gov.