Carper, Coons, Carney announce more than $1.2 million for hiring of police officers for New Castle County

WILMINGTON, Del. – U.S. Senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons, and Representative John Carney (all D-Del.) today announced a total of $1,260,426 for the New Castle County Police Department from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services’ (COPS Office) 2011 hiring grant program. This funding will help the New Castle County Police Department hire six new police officers.

“Every day, Delawareans are fortunate to have the best of the best in law enforcement, protecting and serving communities throughout the First State,” Senator Carper said. “Unfortunately, many law enforcement agencies have had to make drastic cuts in personnel due to the challenging economy and severely strained state and local budgets. This federal funding will help the New Castle County Police Department hire, retain and even rehire more of the men and women who put their lives on the line each day to serve our fellow Delawareans. Not only does this funding help keep our communities safe, but it puts more Delawareans back to work – something that everyone likes to see.”

“The safety of our neighborhoods is tied to the number of police officers we have patrolling our streets,” Senator Coons said. “It’s important that we provide our local law enforcement agencies with the resources they need to hire, train, and retain qualified, committed officers. The six new officers who will be hired because of this grant will make our communities safer. I congratulate the New Castle County Police Department on winning this grant and look forward to continued partnership in keeping our communities safe.”

“There is nothing more important than maintaining safe neighborhoods for Delaware’s businesses and residents,” Congressman Carney said. “This funding will allow the New Castle County Police Department to hire needed officers and enhance safety throughout the entire community. I applaud the brave men and women who make sacrifices every day for our protection, and will continue working to ensure they have the necessary resources to be successful and safe.”

The COPS Hiring Program allocated $243.4 million nationally to create, preserve, or rehire 1,021 sworn law enforcement positions for three years. These grants will cover the full salary and benefits packages for highly trained public sector positions. The jobs created, preserved, or refilled with CHP dollars will advance community policing at the local level, and contribute greatly to the quality of life of the citizens in each community.

This program was highly competitive: with a pool of applicants equivalent to 9,000 officer positions and totaling $2 billion dollars. COPS was able to fund only 238 — nine percent — of the 2,712 COPS applications received during the 2011 solicitation.

###