FY23 COPS Hiring Program | O COPS 2023 171633

Opportunity Information: Apply for O COPS 2023 171633

The FY23 COPS Hiring Program (CHP) is a discretionary federal grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), designed to help law enforcement agencies expand their capacity for community policing by hiring and rehiring sworn career law enforcement officers. The COPS Office is the DOJ entity focused on advancing community policing nationwide through both grantmaking and widely used informational resources. Community policing, as framed in this opportunity, is an agency-wide approach that relies on partnerships and problem-solving to address the underlying conditions contributing to crime, violence, disorder, and community fear, with an emphasis on building trust and improving public safety outcomes.

At its core, CHP provides direct funding to add officer positions that support a clearly described community policing strategy. Applicants are expected to explain how additional officers will be used to strengthen community partnerships, carry out problem analysis and assessment, implement operational or management changes that support community policing, and increase overall community policing activity. Funding is explicitly intended to reorient or enhance an agency mission toward community policing, not simply to backfill routine staffing without a related strategy.

The program’s financial structure is straightforward but strict. For each approved position, FY 2023 CHP will fund up to 75 percent of the entry-level salary and fringe benefits for a three-year period, using the applicant agency’s current entry-level pay levels for full-time officers. There is a minimum 25 percent local cash match requirement (cost share) unless the agency receives an approved waiver. In addition, the maximum federal share is capped at $125,000 per officer for the entire three-year period (not per year), unless a waiver is approved. This cap can effectively increase the local share beyond 25 percent in higher-cost jurisdictions. For example, if an entry-level officer’s salary plus fringe totals $190,000 over three years, the federal award would still cap at $125,000, leaving the agency responsible for the remaining $65,000 (about 34 percent) unless a waiver is granted. Any costs above entry-level compensation, such as paying higher step salaries, also remain the agency’s responsibility.

CHP awards support three years of officer or deputy salaries within a five-year period of performance, which is meant to give agencies enough time to recruit, hire, and onboard. Just as important, the program includes a retention obligation: agencies must retain each CHP-funded position for at least 12 months after the three years of federal funding ends. The positions are expected to become part of the agency’s ongoing staffing plan and budget, supported with state and/or local funds in addition to what the agency would have funded without the grant. The program explicitly states that meeting the retention requirement through attrition (for example, letting other locally funded positions go unfilled and treating the CHP-funded roles as replacements) does not satisfy the intent of the award.

CHP funding can be used in three main hiring categories, and applicants can request one or more categories in the same application. First, agencies may hire new officers, including filling existing vacancies that are no longer funded in the agency budget, but only if the requested CHP positions are truly in addition to the agency’s current budgeted (funded) sworn staffing level and the hiring occurs on or after the official award start date. Second, agencies may rehire officers who were laid off due to state, local, or Bureau of Indian Affairs budget reductions, again with rehiring on or after the award start date and with documentation showing when positions were laid off and rehired. Third, agencies may rehire officers who are scheduled for future layoffs at the time of application because of those same types of budget reductions. In that scenario, the agency must continue to fund the positions locally until the scheduled layoff date, clearly identify the layoff dates and number of positions affected in the application, and then rehire using CHP on or immediately after the layoff date. The program emphasizes documentation and credibility for scheduled layoffs, including proof that layoffs are driven by local economic conditions rather than the availability of CHP funds, with examples such as council meeting minutes, budget documents ordering reductions, internal memoranda, or notices to affected officers.

Once an award is made, the notice of award will specify how many positions are approved under each hiring category, and agencies are not allowed to move positions between categories without written prior approval from the COPS Office. The opportunity also reinforces a statutory non-supplanting requirement: an agency cannot reduce its current fiscal year budget for sworn officers in order to rely on CHP funds. Any staffing or budget reductions must be demonstrably unrelated to receiving CHP funding.

From an administrative and competitive standpoint, the COPS Office states it will fund as many positions as possible for successful applicants, but it may reduce the number of positions requested based on available funding and other program considerations. For FY23, the opportunity lists an award ceiling of $6,250,000, an expectation of roughly 225 awards, and identifies the funding activity area as law, justice, and legal services under CFDA 16.710. Eligible applicants include state governments, county governments, city or township governments, federally recognized Native American tribal governments, and certain other entities as clarified in the full eligibility guidance. The opportunity was created March 8, 2023, with an original application closing date of May 4, 2023.

Finally, the program situates CHP within broader DOJ priorities, explicitly linking the work to advancing civil rights and racial equity, expanding access to justice, supporting victims and people impacted by the justice system, strengthening community safety, addressing evolving threats, and building trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve. This framing signals that applicants should not only justify staffing needs, but also connect proposed hiring to concrete community policing practices and outcomes aligned with these public-interest goals.

• The Department of Justice, Community Oriented Policing Services in the law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY23 COPS Hiring Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.710.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 08, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 04, 2023. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $6,250,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 225 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for O COPS 2023 171633

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