Sheriff’s Office receives $275,000 COPS Grant

  6/02/2020

On June 2nd, 2020, the Sequoyah County Sheriff’s Office was notified that they had received a much-needed personnel grant that will add $275,000 to the department to pay the salaries and benefits for two new patrol deputies for three years.

There were only two Sheriff's Offices in Oklahoma that received this grant (Sequoyah & Rogers). This grant is from the U.S. Dept of Justice and has officially been named “Operation Relentless Pursuit”, which coincidentally is the same tag line that Sheriff Lane has used to refer to the Sheriff’s Offices’ “relentless pursuit” of drug dealers in the county.

The Dept of Justice announced that the awards were inclusive of the $51 million that was announced in May as part of Operation Relentless Pursuit. Sheriff Lane said that Investigator Cindy Smith, who is the sexual assault/child abuse investigator for the sheriff’s office, also serves as the department’s grant writer.

Sheriff Lane bragged about what a fantastic job that Cindy has done getting us grants. “Cindy is the hardest worker we have; she never slows down, and she excels at whatever job she is tasked with”. I don’t know how she does it, the sexual assault/child abuse investigations are never-ending and extremely stressful and time-consuming, yet she handles them efficiently and professionally and still finds time to write our grants”.  

Sheriff Lane said that since he took office in 2017, the Sheriff’s office has been awarded 14 grants for a total of $680,432. “I’m very excited to be getting the two additional deputies, we are one deputy short right now with the one that’s injured and out on workers comp leave. So, hopefully, we will receive the funds soon”.

Investigator Cindy Smith said, “I am so pleased to be awarded this grant, it has been applied for on two previous occasions, with previous Sheriff’s, but this is the first time that it has been awarded”.

There were over 1100 agencies nationwide that applied for this grant, 596 of them were awarded, 18 of which were in Oklahoma and only two of those were Sheriff's offices (Rogers and Sequoyah Counties).  

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AWARDS NEARLY $400 MILLION FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT HIRING TO ADVANCE COMMUNITY POLICING 

WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice today announced nearly $400 million in grant funding through the Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) COPS Hiring Program (CHP).  The Attorney General announced funding awards to 596 law enforcement agencies across the nation, which allows those agencies to hire 2,732 additional full-time law enforcement professionals.  The awards announced today are inclusive of the $51 million announced in May as part of Operation Relentless Pursuit.

“The Department of Justice is committed to providing the police chiefs and sheriffs of our great nation with needed resources, tools, and support.  The funding announced today will bolster their ranks and contribute to expanding community policing efforts nationwide,” said Attorney General William P. Barr.  “A law enforcement agency’s most valuable assets are the men and women who put their lives on the line every day in the name of protecting and serving their communities.”

The COPS Hiring Program is a competitive award program intended to reduce crime and advance public safety through community policing by providing direct funding for the hiring of career law enforcement officers.  In addition to providing financial support for hiring, CHP provides funding to state, local, and tribal law enforcement to enhance local community policing strategies and tactics.  In a changing economic climate, CHP funding helps law enforcement agencies maintain sufficient sworn personnel levels to promote safe communities.  Funding through this program had been on hold since the spring of 2018 due to a nationwide injunction that was lifted earlier this year.

CHP applicants were required to identify a specific crime and disorder problem focus area and explain how the funding will be used to implement community policing approaches to that problem focus area.  Forty-three percent of the awards announced today will focus on violent crime, while the remainder of the awards will focus on a variety of issues including school-based policing to fund school resource officer positions, building trust and respect, and opioid education, prevention, and intervention.  The COPS Office received nearly 1,100 applications requesting more than 4,000 law enforcement positions. 

A complete list of awards can be found here.  To learn more about CHP, please visit https://cops.usdoj.gov/chp.  For additional information about the COPS Office, please visit www.cops.usdoj.gov.