U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

 Fact Sheet cops.usdoj.gov

2023 COPS Hiring Program

Strengthening Community Policing by Hiring Officers

The FY 2023 COPS Hiring Program (CHP) is designed to advance public safety through community policing by addressing 

the full-time sworn officer needs of state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies nationwide. CHP provides funds directly 

to law enforcement agencies to hire new or rehire additional career law enforcement officers and to increase their community 

policing capacity and crime-prevention efforts.

The FY 2023 CHP award program is an open solicitation. All local, state, and tribal law enforcement agencies that have primary law enforcement authority are eligible to apply. All awards are subject to the availability of appropriated funds and to 

any modifications or additional requirements that may be imposed by law.

February 2023

WHEN: Deadline for first part of application 

in Grants.gov is May 4, 2023, at 4:59 

p.m. ET. Deadline for completed 

application in JustGrants is May 11, 

2023, at 4:59 p.m. ET.

Start EARLY. This is more than 

a one-day process.

WHERE: 1. Register at www.grants.gov.

2. Complete the application 

in the JustGrants Justice 

Grants System.

HOW: Online only. No hard copies sent 

by U.S. Mail or electronic copies 

sent via email.

Supporting Local Law Enforcement 

in Advancing Community Policing so 

Communities can Thrive

More than 25 years after its establishment by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, 

the COPS Office continues to support the efforts of law 

enforcement agencies across the country to develop creative 

and innovative ways to meet long-standing challenges in 

their communities. To date, the COPS Office has been 

appropriated more than $20 billion to advance community 

policing including grants awarded to more than 13,000 

state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies to fund the 

hiring and redeployment of more than 136,000 officers.

COPS Office hiring programs like CHP assist law enforcement agencies in advancing public safety by enhancing 

their community policing efforts. In a changing economic 

climate, these programs help state, local, and tribal law 

enforcement agencies maintain sufficient sworn personnel 

levels to keep their communities safe. 

Funding Provisions

FY 2023 CHP awards will provide up to 75 percent of the 

entry-level salary and fringe benefits for each approved position for a three-year period. There is a minimum 25 percent 
local cash match (cost share) requirement unless a waiver is 

approved. The maximum federal share per officer position 

is $125,000 over the three-year period unless a local match 

waiver is approved. Any additional costs for higher than 

entry-level salaries and fringe benefits will be the responsibility of the recipient agency.

CHP awards provide funding for three years (36 months) 

of entry-level salary for each position awarded. The award 

period of performance is five years (60 months) to accommodate the hiring process. Agencies must retain each CHPfunded position for 12 months following the three years of 

funding for that position. The additional officer positions 

should be added to your agency's law enforcement budget with state or local funds (or both) over and above the 

number of locally funded officer positions that would have 

existed in the absence of the award. Absorbing CHP-funded 

positions through attrition (rather than adding the extra positions to your budget with additional funding) does not meet 

the retention requirement.

Funding under this program may be used to do the following: (1) hire new officers (including filling existing officer 

vacancies that are no longer funded in an agency’s budget); 

(2) rehire officers already laid off (at the time of application) 

as a result of state, local, or Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) 

budget reductions unrelated to the receipt of award funding; or (3) rehire officers scheduled to be laid off (at the time 

of application) on a specific future date as a result of state, 

local, or BIA budget reductions unrelated to the receipt of 

award funding. CHP applicants may request funding in one 

or more of these three hiring categories.

The COPS Office may grant a waiver of some or all of an 

applicant’s local match requirement. During the application 

review process, waiver requests will be evaluated based on 

a demonstration of severe fiscal distress.

The COPS Office statutory nonsupplanting requirement 

mandates that CHP funds must be used to supplement 

(increase) state, local, or BIA funds that would have been 

dedicated toward sworn officer positions if federal funding 

had not been awarded. CHP award funds must not be used 

to supplant (replace) local funds that agencies otherwise 

would have devoted to sworn officer hiring. The hiring or 

rehiring of officers under CHP must be in addition to, and 

not in lieu of, officers who otherwise would have been hired 

or rehired with state, local, or BIA funds.

Applicants are 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 sources of retention funding.

Highlights of FY 2023 CHP

Additional consideration in the application review process 

will be given to applicants that propose a community-based 

approach to the following problem/focus areas: Building 

Legitimacy and Trust, Violent Crime (particularly gun 

violence), Police-Based Response to Persons in Crisis, and 

Combating Hate and Domestic Extremism. If awarded 

CHP funding, recipients that chose any of these specific 

community policing problem areas will not be allowed to 

change the problem area post-award. 

Additional consideration will also be given to applicants that 

meet any of the following criteria:

	Executive Order 14074 “Advancing Effective, 

Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices 

to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety.” Applicants 

that demonstrate or seek to support the policies of the 

executive order

	Persistent Poverty. Applicants in an area with persistent poverty

	Preventing Radicalization of Personnel. Applicants 

seeking support for screening and counseling programs 

to identify and prevent the radicalization of applicants 

and personnel who endorse violent and hateful extremist 

movements

	Community-based Hires. Applicants that commit to 

recruiting officers from the community in which they 

will serve

	Community-based Officer Relocation. Applicants that 

commit to recruiting officers who are willing to relocate 

to areas characterized by fragmented relations between 

police and community residents or to areas of high crime

	Diversity Training. Agencies that require evidence-based 

cultural sensitivity training for officers

	Safe Harbor. Applicants in states with certain anti–

human trafficking laws that treat minors engaged in 

commercial sex as victims (referred to as “safe harbor” 

laws) and permit individuals to vacate arrest or prosecution records for nonviolent offenses as a result of being 

trafficked

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2023 COPS Hiring Program

February 2023
	Catastrophic Incident. Applicants that experienced an 

unanticipated catastrophic event or Attorney General–

declared area in crime-related crisis

	Hiring Veterans. Applicants that commit to hiring at 

least one military veteran

	Rural Designation. Applicants from rural areas

	Agency Not Funded in FY22. Applicants that did not 

receive a CHP award in FY 2022

CHP recipients who use CHP funding to deploy school 

resource officers (SRO) will be required to submit a 

memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the law 

enforcement agency and the school partners. In addition, all 

applicants who receive FY 2023 CHP funding for SROs will 

be required to send each awarded SRO position to a training 

sponsored and subsidized by the COPS Office. Additional 

information about this training requirement will be provided to recipients at the time of award.

How to Apply

Step 1. Register with the SAM (System of Award Management) database or confirm or renew your existing 

SAM registration.

Step 2. Confirm your entity’s electronic business point of 

contact (E-Biz POC) in SAM is accurate.

Step 3. Register with Grants.gov or confirm your existing registration. 

Step 4. Submit the first part of your application in 

Grants.gov. Deadline to complete this step is May 4, 2023, at 

4:59 p.m. ET.

Step 5. Onboard your agency to the JustGrants Justice 

Grants System.

Step 6. Complete and submit the second part of your application in JustGrants (https://www.justicegrants.usdoj.gov).

Further instructions and explanations of the application 

process can be found on the COPS Office website at 

https://cops.usdoj.gov.

Complete application packages for the FY 2023 CHP solicitation are due by May 11, 2023, at 4:59 p.m. ET.

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2023 COPS Hiring Program

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.

February 2023