Federal funds scarce for police
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The Clairton Police Department's 10 full-time officers and dozen part-time officers handle about 9,000 calls and make about 1,000 arrests a year.
Chief Robert Hoffman said the department has been stretched thin since it lost about four officers over the past decade -- so thin that, "depending on the situation, it becomes an officer-safety issue."
So he thought his department would be an ideal candidate for a hiring grant through the Justice Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. But he learned last week that he would not receive a grant this year.
"We were really relying on the possibility of receiving the funding," he said. "We just felt we ... could use the help here."
Of the 47 Allegheny County departments that applied, only four received grants, the White House announced last week.
They are: McKeesport, $641,763 for three officers; Wilkinsburg, $210,795 for one officer; Homestead, $142,493 for one officer; and McKees Rocks, $223,083 for one officer.
Pittsburgh's request for 65 officers was turned down.
Still, departments across the country fared better with hiring grants than in past years.
Under the Bush administration, the budget for the COPS program was whittled down from $792 million in 1999 to $4 million in 2005, when the program closed the open-application process and opened it only to targeted departments.
The program was on hiatus in 2006 and 2007. Last year, it received $20 million for another targeted grant program.
McKeesport was the only city in the state to receive a grant last year.
The program got a boost from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, getting $1 billion to fund police officers across the country. But departments nationwide made more than $8 billion in requests, meaning only about one in eight departments that requested funds got them.
A grant covers all of an officer's salary and benefits for three years, and departments have to commit to paying for the officer through a fourth. Half of the grants had to go to departments that are policing communities with fewer than 150,000 people.
Corey Ray, a spokesman for the COPS program, said the Department of Justice weighs a number of things when considering a department for a grant. The COPS program looks first at a community's crime rate, and departments also get points for good community policing efforts. And, for the first time, the program is looking at the health of the local economy as a main factor in its consideration.
"Half of the weight of this application was focused on the local economy, foreclosures, revenues," Mr. Ray said. "We were trying to be true to the goal of the stimulus package and trying to make sure that we focus on stimulating the local economy."
Mr. Ray said part of the intent of the COPS program this year is to save jobs that might have been lost to a souring economy, as municipal budgets are being squeezed.
"They're looking at laying off officers, they've got hiring freezes, they've got unfunded vacancies. Coast to coast, we're hearing that," he said.
Still, the grant program will be no help to North Versailles, whose request for three officers was turned down.
Earlier this year, the township stopped paying its officers for a week because it could no longer afford payroll and because its commissioners passed a budget in January that does not fully fund the department at its current staffing levels.
Chief James Comunale said his budget is so tight that he was actually relieved when one of his officers took a job elsewhere two weeks ago.
"Are we going to go over budget this year? Absolutely. ... And then next year, I don't know what's going to happen," he said.
He fears layoffs.
Carnegie lost out in its request for funding for an officer to replace the one it lost 3 1/2 years ago, leaving its department with a dozen full-time officers. Since then, the department has had to cut back on community policing efforts.
"One of the first things to go is the crime prevention and community outreach," said Chief Jeff Harbin, who said an additional officer would restore some crime prevention programs the department used to have. "We're obviously concentrating on ... the routine patrol and answering the 9-1-1 calls."
McKeesport Chief Joe Pero said he was pleased his department received funding for three officers through the grant, but was disappointed he didn't get funding for the 10 he requested.
His department has not spent its COPS grant money from last year because the city could not satisfy the match requirements, so he will add six full-time officers this year altogether.
Some of the officers will work the beat patrol in the city's 7th Ward, which has a lot of crime. Beat patrol officers are required to get out of their cars and walk the city sidewalks, periodically checking on residents to improve community relations.
He said his department's beat patrol program seemed to be effective when it was employed in 2004.
He added that the grant will allow him to promote part-time officers who are working close to full-time schedules, but without the benefits of a full-time officer.
For departments that did not receive grants, hope is not lost. Mr. Ray said the Department of Justice will hold onto applications for consideration of grants next year, when the program gets its funding allocation.
First Published August 6, 2009 6:16 am
