Federal grant programs / Department of Justice

Public Safety Partnership and Community Policing Grants (16.710)

Also known as COPS Office

• Awarded, FY 2021 to 2025$2.0 billion
• Grant awards3,696
• Typical award$279,527
• Awarded in FY 2025$14.6 million
• Size rank167 of 1,823
• Type of assistanceProject grants

Key findings

• It is the 167th largest of 1,823 federal grant programs by five-year awards.
• The 20 largest recipients received 17% of the money.
• Awards went to recipients in 55 states and territories.

What the program funds

The COPS Office was established in 1994 to assist state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies in enhancing effectiveness and building the capacity to advance public safety through the implementation of community policing strategies. Community policing entails developing partnerships between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve so they can work collaboratively to resolve problems and build community trust. It is a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies that support the systematic use of partnerships and problem solving techniques, in order to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, fear of crime, and satisfaction with police services. Community policing is comprised of three key components: Community Partnerships Collaborative partnerships between the law enforcement agency and the individuals and organizations they serve to develop solutions to problems and increase trust in police: • Other government agencies • Community members/groups • Nonprofits/service providers • Private businesses • Media Organizational Transformation The alignment of organizational management, structure, personnel, and information systems to support community partnerships and proactive problem solving: • Agency management • Climate and culture • Leadership • Labor relations • Decision-making • Strategic planning • Policies • Organizational evaluations • Transparency • Organizational structure • Geographic assignment of officers • Despecialization • Resources and finances • Personnel • Recruitment, hiring, and selection • Personnel supervision/evaluations • Training • Information systems (Technology) • Communication/access to data • Quality and accuracy of data Problem Solving The process of engaging in the proactive and systematic examination of identified problems to develop and rigorously evaluate effective responses: • Scan: Identify and prioritize problems • Analysis: Research what is known about the problem • Response: Develop solutions to bring about lasting reductions in the number and extent of problems • Assessment: Evaluate the success of the responses • Use the crime triangle to focus on immediate conditions (victim/offender/location)

From the federal Assistance Listing. Read the full listing on SAM.gov.

Open opportunities

• FY 2027 COPS-OJP Constitutional Protections for Parents - A NASRO SRO TTA Invitational Program
  Open · Closes November 10, 2026 (3 days left) · up to $3.0 million

Rules from the program listing

Who can apply

States, units of local government, Federally Recognized Indian tribal governments, U.S. territories or possessions (including the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Mariana Islands), other public and private entities, and multi-jurisdictional or regional consortia thereof.

What the money can and cannot pay for

Since 1994, the COPS Office has invested approximately $14.9 billion to add officers to the nation’s streets; enhance crime fighting technology; support crime prevention initiatives; promote police reform; and provide training and technical assistance to help advance community policing. The programs and initiatives developed have provided funding to more than 13,000 of the nation’s 16,000 law enforcement agencies. Through these efforts, the COPS Office has helped create a community policing infrastructure across the nation. In FY 2017, COPS Office will fulfill its mission of advancing public safety through community policing by continuing to: • Provide grants under the COPS Hiring Program (CHP) to support the hiring of sworn and non-sworn law enforcement personnel nationwide; • Promote the hiring of veterans into non-sworn law enforcement positions; • Continuing oversight and coordination of the National Blue Alert System, created under the Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu National Blue Alert Act of 2015. The system is designed to rapidly disseminate information to law enforcement, the media and the public to aid in the apprehension of violent criminals who pose a risk to law enforcement; • Advancing the work of the national Officer Safety and Wellness (OSW) Group, which brings together representatives from law enforcement, federal agencies, and the research community to focus attention on this critical aspect of public safety.

Continue reading on SAM.gov

Matching requirements

This program has no statutory formula. There is no local match requirement for CHP (FY 2010 and FY 2011 only) Anti-Heroin Task Force, CAGI, CAMP, CSPP, Tech, Meth, SSI, CPD, CRI-TA, TRGP-Hiring, TRGP-E/T and Tribal Meth. UHP and Tech recipients (FY 2007 Tech recipients only) must contribute at least 25 percent of allowable project costs, unless a local match waiver is approved by the COPS Office (42 USC 379dd(g)). SOS recipients must contribute at least 50 percent of allowable project costs (42 USC 3797a(d)). FY 2012 to FY 2015, CHP recipients must contribute a minimum of 25 percent of the allowable project costs, unless a local match waiver is approved by the COPS Office. This program has MOE requirements, see funding agency for further details.

Deadlines

Contact the headquarters or regional location, as appropriate for application deadlines

Award range and average, in the agency's words

Range: $10,390.00 - $3,513,921.00 Average award: $167,547.00

Quoted from the program's federal Assistance Listing. The notice of funding opportunity is the official source for each competition's rules.

Who usually wins

State and local governments received 83% of the money, tribes 6.2% and colleges and universities 4.9%.

By state

Each state below has its own page for this program, with its recipients and yearly totals.

Award amounts are federal obligations reported to USAspending.gov for fiscal 2021 to 2025; see how our data works.