Federal Way receives funding for four new police officers
Published 5:52 pm Monday, September 29, 2014
Today the U.S. Department of Justice, office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) announced funding awards to seven cities and counties in the Western District of Washington, aimed at creating, and in some cases protecting, 33 law enforcement positions.
Federal Way received funding for four new officers.
Nearly $121 million will be awarded nationally, including $6.2 million for Western Washington.
“This essential program will put more officers on our streets and in our schools to improve community safety,” said U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan. “It was a competitive process for grants, and today’s announcement is a tribute to these departments who demonstrated how they will serve their communities.”
In addition to Federal Way, the Seattle Police Department and Tacoma Police Department each received funding for 10 new officers. Auburn is funded for five officers and the cities of Fife and Aberdeen one officer each. The Skagit County Sheriff’s Department was awarded funding for two officers.
“The COPS office is pleased to assist local law enforcement agencies throughout the country in addressing their most critical public safety issues,” said Ronald L. Davis, director of the Community Oriented Policing Services office. “Funding from this year’s program will allow many cities and counties to apply new sworn personnel to issues related to violent crime, property crime and school safety.”
The Community Oriented Policing Services Hiring Program offers grants to state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies to hire or rehire community policing officers. The program provides salaries and benefits for officer and deputy hires for three years.
Grantees for the 2014 hiring program were selected based on their fiscal needs, local crime rates and community policing plans.
Community Oriented Policing Services is a federal agency responsible for advancing community policing nationwide. Since 1995, the agency has awarded over $14 billion to advance community policing, including grants awarded to more than 13,000 state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies to fund the hiring and redeployment of approximately 125,000 officers and provide a variety of knowledge resource products including publications, training and technical assistance.
For more information, visit www.cops.usdoj.gov.
