Department Of Justice's COPS Office Invests More Than $536.7 Million In Grants To Improve Public Safety, Reduce Crime, And Advance Community Policing

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – The Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) awarded more than $536.7 million in Fiscal Year 2020 to increase law enforcement hiring and to improve school safety, combat opioids and methamphetamine, advance community policing efforts, provide training to the law enforcement field, and protect the health of our nation’s officers and deputies. A total of $4,695,126 was awarded within Florida’s Northern District, according to Lawrence Keefe, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.

“Community Oriented Policing Services grants are critical to our District’s ability to continue protecting the health and safety of our citizens and our law enforcement officers,” said U.S. Attorney Keefe. “These programs provide support for a wide variety of initiatives such as school violence prevention, anti-narcotics programs, law enforcement mental health and wellness, and community policing development, just to name a few. It has been my pleasure to announce over $4.5 million in awards to North Florida recipients throughout fiscal year 2020.”    

COPS Office awards within Florida’s Northern District in fiscal year 2020 include:

COPS Hiring Program (CHP):  Nearly $400 million in CHP grant funding was awarded to 605 law enforcement agencies across the nation, which will allow those agencies to hire 2,761 additional full-time law enforcement professionals.  CHP provides funding for the hiring and rehiring of entry-level career law enforcement officers in an effort to create and preserve jobs and increase community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts.

Recipients in the Northern District of Florida:

- Fort Walton Beach Police Department: $329,595

- Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office: $118,838

- Walton County Sheriff’s Office: $1,500,000

School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP):  Through SVPP, nearly $49 million was awarded to 160 states, units of local government, Indian tribes, and public agencies to be used to improve security at schools and on school grounds.  Awards included funding for coordination with local law enforcement; training for local law enforcement officers to prevent school violence against others and self; placement and use of metal detectors, locks, lighting, and other deterrent measures; acquisition and installation of technology for expedited notification of local law enforcement during an emergency; and other measures providing significant improvements in security.

Washington County School District received $500,000. 

Anti-Heroin Task Force (AHTF) Program:  More than $29.7 million in AHTF grant funding was awarded to 14 state law enforcement agencies with multijurisdictional reach and interdisciplinary team (e.g., task force) structures in states with high per capita rates of primary treatment admissions for heroin, fentanyl, carfentanil, and other opioids.  This funding will support the location or investigation of illicit activities through statewide collaboration related to the distribution of heroin, fentanyl, or carfentanil or the unlawful distribution of prescription opioids.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement received $2,208,052.

Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act (LEMHWA):  Through LEMHWA, 41 awards were announced totaling $4.5 million to improve the delivery of and access to mental health and wellness services for law enforcement through training and technical assistance, demonstration projects, implementation of promising practices related to peer mentoring mental health and wellness, and suicide prevention programs.

The City of Gainesville received $38,641.

“Building on the successes in reducing violent crime in 2017, 2018, and 2019, these Department of Justice grants for 2020 help to fight violent crime and deadly narcotics, to improve public safety, and to support the officers who put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe,” said Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen.  “Strong partnerships of federal, state, and local law enforcement can produce better results for the public we all serve.”

“Supporting the men and women of law enforcement as they serve their communities is of paramount importance to the COPS Office,” said COPS Office Director Phil Keith.  “Now more than ever, it is critical that we continue to provide state, local and tribal agencies the resources they desperately need to continue to advance public safety, which they are so committed to doing.  We are all the beneficiaries of that work.”

Full lists of all announced COPS Office awards are available here.

The United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Florida is one of 94 offices that serve as the nation’s principal litigators under the direction of the Attorney General. To access available public court documents online, please visit the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida website. For more information about the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/fln/index.html.

The year 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of the Department of Justice.  Learn more about the history of our agency at www.Justice.gov/Celebrating150Years.