U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

 Fact Sheet cops.usdoj.gov

2023 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 

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of career law enforcement officers to increase an agency's community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts. The 

FY 2023 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' demon

strated financial need, and statutory formulas.

September 2023

The COPS Office received 654 CHP applications during 

the open solicitation period from law enforcement agencies 

in nearly every state and U.S. territory. After careful review 

of all applications, the COPS Office made FY 2023 CHP 

awards to 394 state, local, and tribal law enforcement agen-

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cies totaling $216,809,571 to support the hiring of 1,730 

full-time officers and deputies. These awards represent an 

important investment in our nation's safety and law enforce

ment communities.

Supporting Local Law Enforcement

Twenty-nine 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 long-standing community 

crime problems and public safety issues. To date, the COPS 

Office has invested more than $14 billion, including grants 

to more than 15,703 state, local, and tribal law enforcement 

agencies, to reduce crime by advancing community polic-

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ing. In all, COPS Office funding has supported the hiring 

of more than 135,973 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 police-community partnerships for the 

express purpose of crime reduction through effective com

munity 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 com-

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munity policing strategies and tactics.

Problem Focus Areas

All proposed plans and focus areas were eligible for fund

ing; however, additional consideration was given to agencies 

selecting one of the following priority focus areas:

	Building Legitimacy and Trust

	Violent Crime - with additional consideration for com-

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munity violence intervention (CVI) approaches in areas of 

high gun violence

	Police-Based Response to Persons in Crisis

	Combating Hate and Domestic Extremism

Highlights of CHP FY 2023 Funding

	The demand for CHP funding remains extremely high 

among law enforcement agencies nationwide. The COPS 

Office received 654 applications, approximately 60 per

cent of which received awards.

	One hundred eighty-one of the awardees will use the 

funding to focus on building legitimacy and trust, 43 will 

seek to address high rates of gun violence, 80 will focus 

on other areas of violent crime, and 49 will focus CHP 

resources on police-based response to persons in crisis.
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2023 COPS Hiring Program

Program Funding Provisions

CHP awards provide up to 75 percent of the approved 

entry-level salaries and fringe benefits of full-time officers for 

36 months, with a minimum 25 percent local cash match 

requirement and a maximum federal share of $125,000 per 

officer position. Awards are five years long to allow time for 

recruitment and hiring before the 36 months of salary funding begins.

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.

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 

CHP-funded 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. 

Resources

The following are select resources to support 

state, local, and tribal law enforcement officers.

Lessons to Advance Community Policing 

Case studies of COPS Office microgrant projects, 

highlighting successful community policing 

strategies that may be used in other agencies 

across the country.

https://portal.cops.usdoj.gov/resourcecenter/RIC/

ric.php?page=detail&id=COPS-W0880.

Officer Safety and Wellness: Promoting Positive 

Coping Strategies

Identifying ways in which officers may struggle 

to manage the stress of the job in order to 

develop programs and services that can provide 

them with the skills, tools, and positive coping 

strategies that will enable them to build their own 

resilience and not merely survive but flourish.

https://portal.cops.usdoj.gov/resourcecenter/RIC/

ric.php?page=detail&id=COPS-P375.

Law Enforcement Best Practices: 

Lessons from the Field

Examines key areas for community policing. 

These areas include de-escalation; crisis intervention; first-line supervisors; early intervention 

systems; internal affairs; recruitment, hiring, 

promotion, and retention; and data systems.

https://portal.cops.usdoj.gov/resourcecenter/RIC/

ric.php?page=detail&id=COPS-W0875.

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.

Contact the COPS Office

For more information about COPS Office programs 

and resources, please contact the COPS Office 

Response Center at AskCOPSRC@usdoj.gov or 

800-421-6770 or visit the COPS Office website at 

https://cops.usdoj.gov.

September 2023