Niagara Falls Police Department Getting $2.3 Million Dollars As Department Of Justice Awards Nearly $400 Million Dollars For Law Enforcement Hiring To Advance Community Policing; Chemung County To Receive $125,000

CONTACT: Barbara Burns
PHONE: (716) 843-5817
FAX #: (716) 551-3051

BUFFALO, NY – U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr. announced today that the Niagara Falls Police Department has been awarded $2,313,738 through the Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) COPS Hiring Program (CHP). The funding will be used to hire eight additional police officers. In addition, Chemung County will receive $125,000 in COPS funding.

“This is a critical time for the Niagara Falls Police Department,” stated U.S. Attorney Kennedy. “Shootings involving injury jumped 48%, and the number of victims jumped 70%, from 2018 to 2019, and at the same time, the department is understaffed. This grant will allow Niagara Falls to add an additional eight officers to the force to fight violent crime, and without question, these resources will assist Superintendent Licata in his continuing effort to make the streets of Niagara Falls safer for its citizens.”

“The Department of Justice is committed to providing the police chiefs and sheriffs of our great nation with needed resources, tools, and support.  The funding announced today will bolster their ranks and contribute to expanding community policing efforts nationwide,” said Attorney General William P. Barr.  “A law enforcement agency’s most valuable assets are the men and women who put their lives on the line every day in the name of protecting and serving their communities.”

The Attorney General announced $400,000,000 in funding awards to 596 law enforcement agencies across the nation, which allows those agencies to hire 2,732 additional full-time law enforcement professionals. 

The COPS Hiring Program is a competitive award program intended to reduce crime and advance public safety through community policing by providing direct funding for the hiring of career law enforcement officers.  In addition to providing financial support for hiring, CHP provides funding to state, local, and tribal law enforcement to enhance local community policing strategies and tactics.  In a changing economic climate, CHP funding helps law enforcement agencies maintain sufficient sworn personnel levels to promote safe communities.  Funding through this program had been on hold since the spring of 2018 due to a nationwide injunction that was lifted earlier this year.

CHP applicants were required to identify a specific crime and disorder problem focus area and explain how the funding will be used to implement community policing approaches to that problem focus area.  43 percent of the awards announced today will focus on violent crime, while the remainder of the awards will focus on a variety of issues including school-based policing to fund school resource officer positions, building trust and respect, and opioid education, prevention, and intervention.  The COPS Office received nearly 1,100 applications requesting more than 4,000 law enforcement positions. 

To learn more about CHP, please visit https://cops.usdoj.gov/chp.  For additional information about the COPS Office, please visit www.cops.usdoj.gov.

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.

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