07-28-09 $2.45 million to help South Bend keep 13 police officers

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Office of the Mayor NEWS RELEASE July 28, 2009 5 p.m. $2.45 million to help South Bend keep 13 police officers Contact: Mikki Dobski, Director of Communications & Special Projects, 235-5855 or 876-1564 The City of South Bend received word today that as part of the federal stimulus package it will receive a grant of $2,453,295 that will help retain 13 police officers through a three-year COPS Hiring Recover Program grant award. As a stipulation of the grant, the City must retain all sworn officer positions awarded under the grant for a minimum of 12 months following the 36-month funding period. The City received word of the grant in a July 28 letter addressed to Police Chief Darryl Boykins and Mayor Stephen J. Luecke from David M. Buchanan, acting director of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. A public announcement was made this morning in Washington by Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder. In Indiana, South Bend’s award was second only to the more than $11 million given to Indianapolis to retain 50 police officers. The South Bend Police Department was one of 21 agencies receiving funds in Indiana out of more than 150 applicants. Nearly 7,300 CHRP applications requesting over 39,000 officers and $8.3 billion in funds were submitted to the COPS Office. Up to $1 billion in grant funding was appropriated for this initiative through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The grant award start date is July 1, 2009. CHRP is a competitive grant program that addresses the full-time sworn officer needs of state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies nationwide. CHRP provides funding directly to law enforcement agencies to hire new and/or rehire career law enforcement officers in an effort to create and preserve jobs, and to increase their community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts. - 30 -