Chief Jeff Yarbrough stated at the Hutto City Council meeting on June 2 the COPS hiring program (CHP), a grant subsidy of the U.S. Department of Justice, delivered for them authorization of a new grant resolution that will help with expectations to “keep our community safe for our citizens, business and visitors.”
Anticipation for the $156 million-grant increase derives from the overmatch the city’s quarterly and salary allowance for their officers will receive, including a first-year grant coverage that will comprise of more than 70 percent in government funds. The annual cost for an awarded police officer’s salary is $79,606.63, including government funding and limited to $125,000 with benefits.
Challenges the city of Hutto has when applying for the new grant include competition against closer and bigger cities with more crime, such as Houston, Chicago, Arlington and New Orleans, who have received federal funding for their police forces in previous years due to a higher crime volume.
Yarbrough explained that while the city has seen many changes over the years, with an increase in calls, which often dictates the number of police officers that are on patrol, the funding is precisely for community policing with needs.
“We are known as one of the fastest core communities at the heart of Texas with over 30,000 people currently living in our community,” said Yarbrough. “With that growth comes an increase in needs and expectation for our great city and those needs also transfer over to what our great city needs from the police department.”
Councilmember Amberley Kolar added her concerns on the formal objectives of the paperwork submitted that, “These grants are highly competitive on a federal level,” in comparison to state. In addition, she incorporated the importance of having a grant writer that will clearly put an emphasis on the needs of the city.
CHP includes funding for engagement within the community improvement on response to high-level crimes, in addition to better analyst of problems and re-establishment of new policing of recruits and agency management. The department is
The department is competitively facing an approval rate lower that 50% with a grant writer. “It’s difficult to say,” said Yarbrough. “Some of the things, they also factor in, and one of those things are community-oriented hiring. Are you hiring people from inside your community, are you hiring people who are outside of your community, who are willing to move into the community and are you hiring veterans?”
City Council unanimously voted in favor of the next steps of the application for the grant that will include funding for four additional officers. The CHP grant also provides entrylevel, funding over three years for communities of persistent poverty and increasing gun violence with a limited police department.
