Federal funds will allow Paterson to hire 10 new police officers
WASHINGTON, D.C. – September 27, 2013 – (RealEstateRama) — Continuing his fight to secure federal resources for community safety, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) announced today that the City of Paterson has been awarded $1,672,510 in federal funding so that the police department can hire an additional 10 police officers. The grant was awarded through the Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program. Over the past two years, Rep. Pascrell has led the effort in the Congress to save the COPS program from elimination.
“Our brave men and women in uniform put their lives on the line day in and day out keeping our communities safe, so it’s imperative they have every resource available to them,” said Rep. Pascrell, Co-Chairman of the House Law Enforcement Caucus. “As local police departments face increasing budget constraints, we need to ensure the safety of our communities does not suffer. I will continue to fight to ensure the COPS Hiring Program is authorized and well funded so that our communities can meet their unique public safety needs.”
“I couldn’t be more thrilled to receive these federal funds because adding ten additional officers to our force will help strengthen our ability to keep the streets of Paterson safe,” stated Paterson Public Safety Director Glenn Brown. “I thank Congressman Pascrell for fighting on behalf of police officers across our nation to ensure they have the resources they need to keep our communities safe.”
The COPS Hiring Program (CHP) provides funding to address the full-time sworn officer needs of state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies nationwide. CHP grants go directly to law enforcement agencies to hire new and/or rehire career law enforcement officers in an effort to increase their community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts.
Since 1995, COPS has awarded over $13 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 120,000 officers.
In 2011, Congressman Pascrell offered an amendment to H.R. 1, the FY2011 Continuing Resolution, which restored $298 million to the COPS program after it had been cut by the new majority. Later that year, Congressman Pascrell successfully fought to restore $166 million to COPS after the majority again proposed eliminating it entirely. In May 2012, Pascrell again fought to get House passage of an amendment to provide $166 million for the federal Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program. The amendment narrowly passed 206-204, helping ensure that the program will exist in 2013.
Contact
Thomas Pietrykoski (973) 523-5152
