COPS Hiring Program (CHP)—How Decisions were 

Made to Allocate the $98 Million When More than 

$409 Million was Requested 

The CHP solicitation opened on May 22, 2017, and applications were required to be submitted by July 

10, 2017. 

Ultimately, the COPS Office received applications from 1,119 law enforcement agencies requesting 

3,094 officer positions for more than $409,028,743 in federal funding. 

The COPS Office focused on several priority areas for

additional consideration 

Illegal Immigration 

Applicants who chose Illegal Immigration as their focus area in their 2017 CHP application received 

additional consideration for funding. Illegal Immigration includes a focus on partnering with federal 

authorities. In FY 2017, 2 funded agencies selected Illegal Immigration as their jurisdiction’s focus area, 

committing to hire 13 officers. 

Homeland Security 

Applicants who chose “Homeland Security” as their problem area in their 2017 CHP application also 

received additional consideration for funding. “Homeland Security” issues include protecting critical 

infrastructures, information/intelligence concerns, and other homeland security problems. In FY 2017, 

10 funded agencies selected “Homeland Security” as their jurisdiction’s problem area, committing to 

hire 56 officers to address these problems. 

Violent Crime 

The COPS Office supports the Administration's priority goal of reducing violent crime. Applicants who 

chose “Violent Crime” as a problem area in their 2017 CHP application received additional consideration 

for CHP funding. In FY 2017, 98 funded agencies committed to hire 546 officers. 

School Resource Officers 

Applicants who requested officer positions in order to deploy school resource officers (SROs) were 

required to choose the “School Based Policing through School Resource Officers” community policing 

problem area in their 2017 CHP application. Agencies requesting multiple officer positions in order to 

deploy school resource officers must deploy all their funded officer positions as school resource officers. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHP recipients that use CHP funding to deploy SROs must submit a Memorandum of Understanding 

between the CHP recipients and the school partner. Additionally, all COPS-funded SRO(s) are required to 

complete a National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) basic training course no later than 

nine months after the date shown on the award congratulatory letter. The COPS Office will pay the 

training fee directly to NASRO and pay allowable travel costs (airfare, hotel, and per diem) up to $1,000 

per COPS Office-funded SRO. More information can be found on the SRO Training Fact Sheet that is 

posted on the website. In FY 2017, 11 agencies received funding for a total of 16 SRO positions. 

Non-problem area factors 

Additional consideration was given to applicants that had experienced an unanticipated catastrophic 

event, as well as to those applicants who partner with federal authorities to address the issue of illegal 

immigration. Additional consideration was also 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) or permit individuals to vacate arrest or prosecution records 

for non-violent offenses as a result of being trafficked. The COPS Office supports the attorney general’s 

commitment to hiring military veterans whenever possible, and applicants who committed to hiring or 

rehiring at least one military veteran under CHP received additional consideration for FY 2017 CHP 

funding. A military veteran hire must have served on active duty for a period of at least 180 consecutive 

days, any part of which occurred on or after September 11, 2001. The FY 2017 CHP funding list includes 

138 agencies who made a commitment to hire or rehire at least one military veteran using CHP funding. 

The COPS Office developed an application to meet the

requirements of the law 

The COPS Office developed an application for CHP funds that met the requirements of the statute and 

mission of the COPS Office to increase the ability of law enforcement to implement community policing 

strategies within the three primary elements of community policing: 1) problem solving, 2) partnerships, 

and 3) organizational transformation. 

The COPS Office balanced scoring indicators 

To measure and compare the necessary scoring indicators, the COPS Office consulted with experts in the 

fields of policing, criminology, and public finance to develop appropriate application questions. 

Applicants were asked to submit information on such indicators as the following: 

•Reported crime for the previous three years 

•Current commitment to community policing 

•Planned community policing activities 

•Changes in budget for law enforcement agencies 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

•Poverty and unemployment rates 

In asking a variety of fiscal health questions, the COPS Office focused on getting as complete a view as 

possible of the fiscal need of applicants through objective and verifiable indicators that all agencies, 

from rural communities to large cities, could accurately report. 

The community policing philosophy engages in a proactive and systematic examination of identified 

problems that can be countered with effective responses. Applicants were asked to identify the specific 

community problem they wished to address with COPS Office funding. 

Community policing relies heavily on partnerships and relationships between law enforcement and the 

community it serves. A number of questions were designed to examine an agency’s formation of 

partnerships such as working with other public agencies, private organizations, or participation in 

regional law enforcement partnerships. Agencies were asked to identify the number and types of 

partnerships they intended to initiate or enhance in order to address their identified problem. 

The COPS Office checked and double-checked, 

verifying the data applicants provided 

The application system contains numerous built-in logic checks to help prevent the submission of 

erroneous data. In addition, once the applications were submitted, specialists in the COPS Office 

immediately reviewed the data contained therein. The COPS Office reviewed more than 375 data points 

within each application. In some cases, the COPS Office contacted applicant agencies to verify 

information provided in their application. This data verification process, though time-consuming, was 

crucial to ensuring that all applicants were properly evaluated based on accurate and reliable economic, 

crime, and community policing data. This process included checking against available reported data such 

as the Uniform Crime Statistics reported annually to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 

The COPS Office developed a uniform system of

evaluating the information that applicants submitted 

Selection methodology 

The COPS Office focused on balancing the applicant’s need for federal assistance (as measured by 

economic and fiscal health questions) with crime rates and the applicant’s current commitment to 

community policing and their proposed community policing strategy. For FY 2017, an applicant’s 

commitment to community policing and the strength of their overall community policing strategy were 

the basis for initial scoring. A minimum score was established for the community policing portion of the 

application. 36 agencies that did not meet the score were removed from further consideration. 

For the remaining applicants, fiscal need constituted 20 percent, crime 30 percent, and community 

policing 50 percent of the overall score. In addition, models similar to those used in FY 2011–2016 were 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

used to determine the weight of the questions within each broad category. For example, within the 20 

percent of the score allocated to the need for federal assistance, applicants were ranked on measures of 

recent economic conditions as well as those of systemic socioeconomic health. COPS Office staff 

followed up with applicants and reviewed publicly available data to ensure that the information was as 

error-free as possible before completing the ranking protocol. 

Because of the high demand and limited funding available, only 179 of the 1,119 CHP requests were 

ultimately funded, which is only about 16 percent of the total number of agencies that submitted 

applications. 

In addition, two long-standing statutory requirements designed to ensure national distribution of COPS 

Office funding had an impact on which applications were ultimately funded. First, the COPS Office must 

distribute half of all hiring funds to agencies serving populations of more than 150,000 and half to those 

of fewer than 150,000. Second, by law the COPS Office must ensure that at least one-half of one percent 

of hiring funds ($492,518 for FY 2017) is allocated to each state or territory with eligible applicants. 

Although this ultimately means that sometimes a lower scoring applicant in one state receives funding 

ahead of a higher scoring applicant in another, this requirement helps ensure that smaller states and 

territories are not excluded from funding. 

Capping methodology 

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

reported on the date of application. Agencies with a service population of 1 million or more were 

eligible to apply for up to 25 officer positions while agencies with a service population less than 1 million 

were eligible to apply for up to 15 officer positions. The request of any agency with a sworn force 

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