WASHINGTON, D.C. — On January 15, 2021, the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) will host a listening session with law enforcement and stakeholders to better meet the grant administration needs of the law enforcement field. The listening session is part of the COPS Office’s ongoing commitment to state, local and tribal law enforcement through its Field Engagement Initiative on Grants Development and Management.

Through this work, the COPS Office seeks to improve and simplify the grant application and management process, tailor beneficial training and technical assistance, and improve results. This initiative will continue to advance quality control in several aspects of the grant award and management process. As a leader in the management of federal funding, this is part of the COPS Office’s on-going effort to maintain open and active communications, in order to continually meet the needs of state, local and tribal law enforcement. The COPS Office seeks to minimize the burden placed on stakeholders when seeking and accessing federal resources to advance community policing.

“Over the past several years, through dozens of in-person listening sessions and small group discussions across the country, we have renewed our commitment to listening to the law enforcement field about their public safety needs. This continues our on-going vow to the field,” said COPS Office Director Phil Keith. “By establishing a process for on-going communication, we are able to hear directly from the front line on the experience with COPS Office programs and services in order to ensure that we are meeting the needs of law enforcement, in keeping with our office’s ‘by the field, for the field’ approach.”

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 agency 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 134,000 officers.

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