WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) announced today $48.7 million in funding to advance community policing nationwide, provide technical assistance to law enforcement agencies, and promote officer mental health and wellness.

“For almost 30 years now, the COPS Office has worked to help our law enforcement agencies and communities work together to build trust, increase public safety, and reduce crime,” said Robert Chapman, Acting Director of the COPS Office. “These awards announced today do just that. They provide much needed technical assistance to law enforcement, they support programs that help law enforcement work closely and creatively with the communities they serve, and they provide support to ensure the continued health and safety of our officers.”

Community Policing Development (CPD) program funds are used to support promising practices through the development and testing of innovative strategies; building knowledge about effective practices and outcomes; and supporting new, creative approaches to preventing crime and promoting safe communities. Highlights of the CPD funding include:

• Crisis Intervention Teams. Approximately $7.3 million will support the implementation of crisis intervention teams, including embedding behavioral or mental health professionals with law enforcement agencies, training for law enforcement officers and embedded behavioral or mental health professionals in crisis intervention response, or a combination of these.
• De-escalation training. Over $8.6 million will fund training for state and local law enforcement agencies, and almost $3 million will support de-escalation training centers.
• Accreditation. Approximately $4.7 million will go to departments seeking accreditation, and $1.8 million will expand existing law enforcement accreditation entities’ efforts.
• Tolerance, diversity and anti-bias training. Almost $2 million will support tolerance, diversity and anti-bias training.
• COPS Microgrants. A total of $5 million will fund projects that offer creative ideas to implement innovative community policing strategies.
• Recruitment and Hiring. Approximately $400,000 will support a project to develop recruitment and hiring resources that can be shared with the broader law enforcement field and provide technical assistance to help law enforcement agencies implement improvements to increase their capacity to attract and select the best candidates and develop creative strategies to market policing positions and expand the pool of potential applicants.

The Collaborative Reform Initiative includes three different programs that offer expert services to state, local, territorial, and tribal law enforcement agencies. Approximately $8.3 million will support three different technical assistance providers. The three programs include:

• The Collaborative Reform Initiative Technical Assistance Center (CRI-TAC), supported by ten leading law enforcement stakeholder associations, provides critical and tailored technical assistance resources to state, local, territorial, and tribal law enforcement agencies on a wide variety of topics. It features a “by the field, for the field” approach while delivering individualized technical assistance using leading experts in a range of public safety, crime reduction, and community policing topics.
• The Critical Response program is designed to provide targeted technical assistance to law enforcement agencies experiencing high profile events, major incidents, or sensitive issues that require outside help. Assistance can include peer-to-peer exchanges, analysis and recommendations, and facilitated discussions with subject matter experts.
• Organizational assessments offer the most intensive form of technical assistance on the continuum and involve in-depth assessments and long-term assistance on systemic issues that can threaten community trust and confidence.

Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act (LEMHWA) program funds are used to improve the delivery of and access to mental health and wellness services in law enforcement agencies through the implementation of peer support, training, family resources, suicide prevention, and other promising practices for wellness programs. Over $7 million will fund 50 projects that develop knowledge, increase awareness of effective mental health and wellness strategies, increase the skills and abilities of law enforcement officers, and increase the number of law enforcement agencies using peer support, training, family resources, suicide prevention, and other promising practices for wellness programs.

The complete list of Community Policing Development award recipients, including funding amounts, can be found here: https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/2022AwardDocs/cpd/Award_List.pdf

The complete list of Collaborative Reform recipients, including funding amounts, can be found here: https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/2022AwardDocs/cri/Award_List.pdf

The complete list of Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act program recipients, including funding amounts, can be found here: https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/2022AwardDocs/lemhwa/Award_List.pdf

The COPS Office is the federal component of the Department of Justice responsible for advancing community policing nationwide. The only Department of Justice agency with policing in its name, the COPS Office was established in 1994 and has been the cornerstone of the nation’s crime fighting strategy with grants, a variety of knowledge resource products, and training and technical assistance. Through the years, the COPS Office has become the go-to organization for law enforcement agencies across the country and continues to listen to the field and provide the resources that are needed to reduce crime and build trust between law enforcement and the communities served. The COPS Office has invested more than $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 more than 136,000 officers.

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