The 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. Approximately $111 

million in grant funding was appropriated for this initiative through the fiscal 

year (FY) 2012 Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act. CHP provides 

funds directly to law enforcement agencies to hire new and/or rehire career law 

enforcement officers, and to increase their community policing capacity and 

crime prevention efforts.

In FY2012, the CHP grant program was not an open solicitation. Only agencies 

with a pending 2011 CHP application were eligible to apply for 2012 CHP 

funding consideration. Agencies whose requests were fully funded in FY2011, 

or that received 25 officer positions, were not eligible to apply for 2012 CHP.

Supporting Local Law Enforcement

More than 15 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 problems and public 

safety issues. To date, the COPS Office has funded the addition of nearly 123,800 

officers to more than 12,000 state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies to 

advance community policing in small and large jurisdictions across the nation.

CHP is one of several hiring programs developed by the COPS Office since its 

inception to support law enforcement. This is particularly important as state, 

local, and tribal law enforcement agencies embrace the challenges of keeping 

communities safe while maintaining sufficient sworn personnel levels.

Grant Program Funding Provisions

In FY2012, the COPS Office awarded $111 million in CHP grants to more than 

200 law enforcement agencies to hire, preserve, and/or rehire 800 full-time career 

law enforcement officers. CHP grants provide up to 75 percent of the approved 

entry-level salaries and fringe benefits of full-time officers for a 36-month 

grant period, with a minimum 25 percent local cash match requirement and a 

maximum federal share of $125,000 per officer position. These grants may be 

used on or after the official grant award start date to: (1) hire new officer positions 

who are military veterans (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 updated application) as a result of state, local, or Bureau of Indian Affairs 

(BIA) budget reductions unrelated to the receipt of grant funding; or (3) rehire 

officers scheduled to be laid off (at the time of updated application) on a specific 

future date as a result of state, local, or BIA budget reductions unrelated to the 

receipt of grant funding.

2012 COPS Hiring Program 

Strengthening Community Policing by Hiring Officers

“Community Policing, at its simplest, 

is about building relationships 

and solving problems.” 

Bernard Melekian, Director

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

 Fact Sheet www.cops.usdoj.gov

Below are a variety of resources to better 

enable law enforcement agencies to recruit, 

hire, and retain officers. Additional resources for 

transitioning military veterans to careers in law 

enforcement can be found at www.cops.usdoj.

gov/Default.asp?Item=2630. 

•	 Innovations in Police Recruitment and Hiring–

Hiring in the Spirit of Service This publication 

discusses how agencies met their goals of 

hiring service-oriented recruits, the challenges 

encountered as well as lessons learned. 

www.cops.usdoj.gov/RIC/ResourceDetail.

aspx?RID=113

•	 COPS Video Cast–Hiring in the Spirit of Service 

King County Sheriff Sue Rahr explains how her 

agency’s involvement in the “Hiring in the Spirit 

of Service” program helped aid organizational 

transformation and drastically improved 

recruiting and retention. http://cops.usdoj.gov/

html/COPSMediaCenter/index.html

•	 Recruitment, Hiring, and Retention Resources 

for Law Enforcement CD-ROM This CD 

provides resources to assist those responsible 

for finding, training, and retaining qualified 

staff. www.cops.usdoj.gov/RIC/ResourceDetail.

aspx?RID=450

•	 Law Enforcement Recruitment Toolkit The Law 

Enforcement Recruitment Toolkit developed 

by the International Association of Chiefs of 

Police (IACP) 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. 

www.cops.usdoj.gov/RIC/ResourceDetail.

aspx?RID=542
CHP grant funding is based on an agency’s entry-level full-time sworn officer 

salary and fringe benefits at the time of updated grant application. Any additional 

costs for higher than entry-level salaries and fringe benefits are the responsibility 

of the grantee agency. 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 jurisdictions that service a population less than 

1 million, and up to a maximum of 25 officers for jurisdictions that service a 

population more than 1 million. Additionally, the request of any agency with a 

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

whose eligible requests were partially funded in FY2011 had their eligible requests 

reduced by the number of positions they were awarded in FY2011.

The COPS Office granted waivers of some or all of an applicant’s local cash match 

requirement. Requests for waivers were evaluated during the application review 

process based on a demonstration of severe fiscal distress. 

The COPS Office statutory nonsupplanting requirement mandates that CHP 

funds 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 grant 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.

At the conclusion of 36 months of federal funding, grantees must retain all 

sworn officer positions awarded under the CHP grant for a minimum of 12 months. 

The retained CHP-funded position(s) should be added to the grantee’s law 

enforcement budget with state and/or local funds, over and above the number 

of locally-funded positions that would have existed in the absence of the grant. 

Applicants were required to affirm in their CHP grant application that their 

agency plans to retain any additional officer positions awarded following the 

expiration of the grant 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.

Rev June 2012

•	 Police Recruitment and Retention 

Clearinghouse The purpose of this website 

is to promote evidence-based personnel 

planning by making information on police 

staffing readily available for police decision 

makers in an easy to use, searchable form. 

www.rand.org/ise/centers/quality_policing/

cops.html

•	 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 Training Officer (PTO) CD-ROM This 

CD is a four-part compilation of resources 

of the COPS Office Police Training Officer 

(PTO) program, an innovative field training 

experience reflecting policing in the 

21st century. http://cops.usdoj.gov/RIC/

ResourceDetail.aspx?RID=491

•	 Police Recruitment and Retention for the New 

Millennium This guidebook 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://cops.usdoj.gov/RIC/ResourceDetail.

aspx?RID=599

•	 Today’s Police and Sheriff Recruits This report 

provides the results of a recruit assessment 

conducted by RAND, including both findings 

about the overall sample as well as those 

focused on groups often of particular interest 

to law enforcement recruitment professionals. 

www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG992.html

•	 Community Policing Defined Community 

Policing Defined provides a detailed 

description of the elements of the community 

policing philosophy. http://cops.usdoj.gov/RIC/

ResourceDetail.aspx?RID=513

Visit the COPS Hiring Grantee Resources website 

at http://cops.usdoj.gov/Default.asp?item=2557

for a complete listing of hiring, recruitment, and 

retention resources. 

For additional information on the COPS Office, visit 

www.cops.usdoj.gov.