Washington may receive two new officers, thanks to a federal grant.
Washington City Council members approved Police Chief Jim Kuchenbecker’s request Monday night to send in an application for a COPS Hiring Recovery Program grant.
According to the CHRP Web site, CHRP is a competitive grant program that provides funding directly to law enforcement agencies having primary law enforcement authority to create and preserve jobs and to increase their community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts.
Kuchenbecker said CHRP was first instituted when Bill Clinton was president. It provided federal funding for 100,000 new police officers nationwide.
Under the Clinton administration, funding for those officers was in a step-down format.
For the first year, federal funding would pay 75 percent of the cost of the new officer. Each consecutive year, the federal funding would drop by 25 percent.
In the fourth year, municipalities receiving CHRP funds would be responsible for 100 percent of those officers’ pay.
In the years after Clinton left office, CHRP was cut, Kuchenbecker said. However, President Barrack Obama recently reinstated the program as part of his economic recovery program.
The difference is now the grant will cover 100 percent of the entry-level salary and benefits packages of all officers hired as a result of the grant for three years. The condition is the municipality must pay those officers for the fourth year.
Kuchenbecker said he did not know the exact number of new officers under the program because the number keeps changing.
He added he knew it would be at least 5,500 officers nationwide, and up to $1 billion in grant funding will be made available.
Washington currently has 20 officers. The budget allows for one additional officer, but because of the current economic status, city leaders asked that the police department hold off hiring the last officer.
Kuchenbecker said Washington is divided into three patrol districts. In order to provide adequate coverage of the city, Washington needs at least 28 full-time officers, he added.
He said this allows patrols to continue when an officer is unavailable because he is already on a call.
In his request, Kuchenbecker originally asked for permission to apply for three officer positions.
However, because of economic uncertainty, council members were leery of being bound to the fourth year condition of the grant.
City administrator Bob Morris said if Washington was to be awarded a CHRP grant, it would obligate the city to a higher level of staff.
