COPS Hiring Program

The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) is the component of the U.S. Department of Justice responsible for advancing the practice of community policing by the Nation’s state, local, territorial, and tribal law enforcement agencies through information and grant resources. Since inception, the COPS Office has been appropriated more than $20 billion to advance community policing, including grants awarded to more than 13,000 state, local, territorial, and tribal law enforcement agencies to fund the hiring and redeployment of more than 136,000 officers. COPS Office information resources, covering a wide range of community policing topics such as school and campus safety, violent crime, and officer safety and wellness, can be downloaded via the COPS Office’s home page, https://cops.usdoj.gov.

The COPS Hiring Program (CHP) provides funding to law enforcement agencies to hire and/or rehire additional career law enforcement officers in an effort to increase their community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts. Anticipated outcomes of CHP awards include engagement in planned community partnerships, implementation of projects to analyze and assess problems, implementation of changes to personnel and agency management in support of community policing, and increased capacity of agency to engage in community policing activities necessary to prevent crime.

Community policing is a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies that support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as violent crime, nonviolent crime, and fear of crime. To read an overview of the principles of community policing, please see the COPS Office publication, "Community Policing Defined".

Local, state, territorial, and tribal law enforcement agencies that have primary law enforcement authority are eligible to apply.

An agency with primary law enforcement authority is defined as the first responder to calls for service for all types of criminal incidents within the jurisdiction served. Applicants must have a law enforcement agency (i.e. Sheriff’s Office, Department, etc.) that is operational by the close of this application or receive services through a new or existing contract for law enforcement services through an existing contract for law enforcement services or a new contract for law enforcement services that is in place by the close of this solicitation. Applicants must also maintain primary law enforcement authority for the population to be served.

If funds under this program are to be used as part of a written contracting agreement for law enforcement services (e.g., a town that contracts with a neighboring sheriff’s department to receive services), the agency wishing to receive law enforcement services must be the legal applicant in this application.

A law enforcement agency is established and operational if the jurisdiction has passed authorizing legislation and it has a current operating budget.

- Search using the Assistance Listing Title and the Funding Opportunity Number from the solicitation.

- Select “Apply for Grants” under the “Applicants” column. Enter your email address to be notified of any changes to the opportunity package before the closing date. Click the Workspace icon to use Grants.gov Workspace.

- Within 24 hours of JustGrants receiving an application from Grants.gov, the user submitting the application in Grants.gov and SAM E-Biz POC will receive an email to register for a JustGrants account. The email is from DOJ’s secure user management system (DIAMD) and will include instructions on how to create an account.

To ensure that you receive these emails and that they are not flagged as spam, we recommend adding DIAMD-NoReply@usdoj.gov to the trusted sender list in your email settings.

The E-Biz POC at the applicant organization serves as the Entity Administrator and must log in to JustGrants to confirm the entity’s profile, add users, and assign the two required Authorized Representatives (Law Enforcement Executive/Program Official and Government Executive/Financial Official). The Authorized Representatives are officials who have ultimate and final responsibility for all programmatic and financial decisions for your agency, as the legal recipient.

- The Application Submitter will complete the application by entering data into web-based forms, uploading attachments, and accepting assurances and certifications. Before you submit your application, each section much be completed and free of validation errors. If not, please return to each identified page using the table of contents on the right side of the page. If any required fields are unanswered, they will be flagged with warning messages. In this case, answer these required fields.

- Once all sections are completed, the application submitter will submit the application.

Upon approval by the Director of the Office of Community Oriented Services, award notifications will be sent to successful applicants. The award documents must be signed by the appropriate Authorized Representative(s).