U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

 Fact Sheet www.cops.usdoj.gov

2017 COPS Hiring Program

Advancing Community Policing by Hiring Officers 

The COPS Hiring Program (CHP) is designed to reduce crime and advance public 

safety through community policing by providing direct support to state, local, and tribal 

law enforcement agencies nationwide. CHP funding supports the hiring of career law 

enforcement officers to increase an agency's community policing capacity and crime 

prevention efforts. The FY 2017 CHP award program was an open solicitation. All local, 

state, and tribal law enforcement agencies having primary law enforcement authority were 

eligible to apply. The award selection process was highly competitive and based on a variety of 

factors including problem focus area, local crime data, agencies' commitment to community 

policing, agencies' demonstrated financial need, and statutory formulas.

The COPS Office received more than 1,100 CHP applications during the FY 2017 open 

solicitation period from law enforcement agencies in every state and US territory. After 

careful review of all applications, the COPS Office made FY 2017 CHP awards to 179 state, 

local, and tribal law enforcement agencies totaling $98,495,397 to support the hiring of 802 

full time law enforcement officers. These awards represent an important investment in our 

nation's safety and law enforcement communities.

Supporting Local Law Enforcement

Twenty-three years after the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 

was signed into law, the COPS Office continues to support the efforts of law enforcement 

agencies across the country as they develop creative and innovative ways to deal with longstanding community crime problems and public safety issues. To date, the COPS Office has 

invested more than $14 billion, including grants to more than 13,000 state, local, and tribal 

law enforcement agencies, to reduce crime by advancing community policing. In all, COPS 

Office funding has supported the hiring of more than 130,000 law enforcement officers in 

agencies large and small across the nation.

CHP is the COPS Office's flagship program with a long history of promoting policecommunity partnerships for the express purpose of crime reduction through effective 

community policing. Through CHP, the COPS Office is supporting our nation's front-line 

heroes by providing them with needed resources and expertise to enhance local community 

policing strategies and tactics.

Problem Focus Areas

All proposed plans and focus areas were eligible for funding; however, additional 

consideration was given to agencies selecting one of the following priority focus areas:

• Illegal immigration - plans that address illegal immigration

• Violent crime - plans that focus on reducing violent crime

• Homeland security - including protecting critical infrastructures, information 

intelligence problems, and other homeland security problems

The following is a variety of resources to better 

enable law enforcement agencies to recruit, hire, 

and retain officers.

 Innovations in Police Recruitment and 

Hiring—Hiring in the Spirit of Service

Discusses how agencies met their goals of 

hiring service-oriented recruits, the challenges 

encountered, and lessons learned. http://ric-zaiinc.com/ric.php?page=detail&id=COPS-P090.

 Law Enforcement Recruitment Toolkit 

Developed by the International Association of 

Chiefs of Police (IACP), this toolkit comprises 

four reports, each focusing on a different area 

of recruitment. This toolkit is one step among 

many in addressing the recruitment needs of the 

field. The issues of police recruitment, selection, 

and retention are critical to the advancement 

of community policing and the policing 

profession in general. http://ric-zai-inc.com/ric.

php?page=detail&id=COPS-P171.

 Discover Policing This website offers first-hand 

descriptions of law enforcement work and provides 

opportunities for potential recruits and agencies to 

connect. www.discoverpolicing.org.

 Police Recruitment and Retention for the New 

Millennium Summarizes for police practitioners 

lessons on recruiting and retaining diverse, 

effective workforces. It provides a means for 

local officials to identify what has been tried 

elsewhere and what might be applicable in their 

own communities. http://ric-zai-inc.com/ric.

php?page=detail&id=COPS-P199.
 Today’s Police and Sheriff Recruits Provides 

the results of a recruit assessment conducted 

by RAND, including findings about both the 

overall sample and those focused on groups 

often of particular interest to law enforcement 

recruitment professionals. http://ric-zai-inc.com/

ric.php?page=detail&id=COPS-W0592.

 Assigning Police Officers to Schools Nearly 

half of all public schools have assigned police 

officers, commonly referred to as school 

resource officers (SRO) or education officers. This 

publication summarizes the typical duties of 

SROs, synthesizes the research pertaining to their 

effectiveness, and presents issues for communities 

to bear in mind when considering the adoption 

of an SRO model. http://ric-zai-inc.com/ric.

php?page=detail&id=COPS-P182.

Additional COPS Office publications and resources 

are posted online at www.cops.usdoj.gov.

Highlights of CHP FY 2017 Funding

• The demand for CHP funding remains extremely high among law enforcement

agencies nationwide. More than 1,100 applications were received, 16 percent of

which received awards.

• Eighty percent of awardees received priority consideration because they certified their

willingness to cooperate with federal immigration authorities within their detention

facilities to address illegal immigration.

• Additional consideration was given to applicants in 41 states and the District of

Columbia with certain anti–human trafficking laws that treat minors engaged in

commercial sex as victims (referred to as "safe harbor" laws).

• The most popular problem focus area for awardees was violent crime.

• One hundred thirty-eight awardees intend to hire one or more veterans with

CHP funding.

Program Funding Provisions

CHP awards provide up to 75 percent of the approved entry-level salaries and fringe benefits 

of full-time officers for a 36-month award period, with a minimum 25 percent local cash 

match requirement and a maximum federal share of $125,000 per officer position. 

Any additional costs for salaries and fringe benefits higher than entry level are the 

responsibility of the recipient agency. The COPS Office granted waivers of some or all of an 

applicant’s local cash match based on a demonstration of severe fiscal distress.

All agencies’ awards were capped at no more than 5 percent of their actual sworn force 

strength as reported in their application, up to a maximum of 15 officers for agencies that 

serve a population less than 1 million and up to a maximum of 25 officers for agencies that 

serve a population of 1 million or more. In addition, the request of any agency with a sworn 

force strength less than or equal to 20 was capped at one officer.

CHP award funds may not be used to supplant (replace) local funds that agencies otherwise 

would have devoted to sworn officer hiring. The hiring of officers under CHP must be in 

addition to, and not in lieu of, officers who otherwise would have been hired with state or 

local funds.

At the conclusion of 36 months of federal funding, recipients must retain all sworn officer 

positions awarded under the CHP award for a minimum of 12 months. The retained CHPfunded position(s) should be added to the recipient's law enforcement budget with state or 

local funds, over and above the number of locally funded positions that would have existed in 

the absence of the award. Applicants were required to affirm in their CHP award application 

that their agency plans to retain any additional officer positions funded following the 

expiration of the award and identify their planned source(s) of retention funding.

Contact the COPS Office

For more information about the COPS Hiring Program, please call the COPS Office 

Response Center at 800-421-6770 or visit COPS Online at www.cops.usdoj.gov.

November 2017