The Madison Police Department will not receive federal funding intended to hire 15 more officers, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.
The DOJ’s Community Oriented Policing Services released their list of 2017 recipients for the COPS’ Hiring Program and MPD was not one of the departments included.
According to the office’s description of the grant, the COPS Hiring Program “supports the hiring of career law enforcement officers to increase an agency's community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts.”
This year, the DOJ allocated $98 million after more than $408 million dollars was requested from 1,119 law enforcement agencies. The awarded grants focused on several priority areas including illegal immigration, homeland security, violent crime and school resource officers.
The city initially proposed a $350,000 matching grant, although a late amendment added an additional $400,000 for hiring increases in case the application was denied. The $750,000 would allow the city to hire six or seven officers.
The city’s 2018 executive budget includes $173,500 from the 2014 COPS grant, which will end in 2018 and $328,850 from the 2015 COPS Hiring grant. The funding includes nearly $260,000 in local matching.
However, three Wisconsin police departments were awarded funding Monday.
La Crosse received $250,000 to hire two officers to focus on drug manufacturing, drug
