Holder announces $124M for new cops

The Justice Department on Monday rolled out the latest in a series of initiatives meant to curb crime on the nation’s streets, announcing $124 million in hiring grant funds for hundreds of police departments. 

Attorney General Eric Holder touted the cash infusion, which will pay for roughly 950 police officers, during the launch of a new initiative meant to stem violence in select cities by increasing communities’ access to the Justice Department’s “wealth of resources.” 

{mosads}“In some cities — and particularly in small sections of those cities — crime rates have remained stubbornly, and unacceptably, high,” Holder said during remarks at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Washington headquarters. 

The program, dubbed the Violence Reduction Network, is focused on Chicago, Detroit, Wilmington, Del.; Camden, N.J. and; and Oakland, Calif. 

The funding for new police officers, however, is not limited to those areas and will benefit 215 law enforcement agencies around the country. Administered through the agency’s COPS Hiring Program the grants will provide up to 75 percent of entry-level salaries and fringe benefits for full-time officers over a three-year period.

The agencies are required to match a minimum of 25 percent of the officers’ pay, but can’t spend more than $125,000 on a single officer over the life of the grant. 

The funding boost comes less than two weeks after Holder launched a national review of racial bias at local police departments in the wake of the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teen last month in Ferguson, Mo.

Holder also has also ordered up separate federal probes of the shooting and of the Ferguson police force. 

On Monday, he sought to make clear the agency’s support for the nation’s police officers, which he credited for aiding in a 10-percent drop in crime during the Obama administration. 

“Know that, at every turn, we stand ready and willing to help streamline, to facilitate, and to cut through red tape,” he said.