COPS Office: COPS History

COPS History Banner

1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002

2003| 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011

1994

The Violent Crime Control & Law Enforcement Act passes both the House and the Senate, authorizing an $8.8 billion expenditure over six years. The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services is created to distribute and monitor these funds.
COPS launches three new programs: Accelerated Hiring, Education, And Deployment (AHEAD), Funding Accelerated for Smaller Towns (FAST), and Making Officer Redeployment Effective (MORE).
COPS awards $200 million to 392 agencies for 2,700 additional community policing professionals.
Total COPS Office Appropriation for Fiscal Year 1994: $148.4 million

1995

COPS funds 25,000 more officers.
COPS announces the Universal Hiring Program (UHP), which incorporates FAST and AHEAD.
COPS awards grants totaling $10 million through the Youth Firearms Violence Initiative.
Total COPS Office Appropriation for Fiscal Year 1995: $1.3 billion

1996

COPS funds more than 52,000 officers through UHP.
COPS announces its Anti-Gang Initiative and Community Policing to Combat Domestic Violence Program.
Total COPS Office Appropriation for Fiscal Year 1996: $1.4 billion

1997

COPS publishes and releases a report entitled Police Integrity: Public Service with Honor.
COPS funding establishes a nationwide network of Regional Community Policing Institutes (RCPIs).
COPS announces its Problem-Solving Partnership initiative.
Total COPS Office Appropriation for Fiscal Year 1997: $1.42 billion

1998

COPS has now funded 75,000 new community policing professionals nationwide.
COPS introduces three new programs: Distressed Neighborhoods Pilot Project, Police Corps Program, and Small Communities Grant Program.
COPS launches the Methamphetamine Initiative, through which it awards $34 million throughout the fiscal year.
COPS awards a total of $38 million through its Technology Program.
Total COPS Office Appropriation for Fiscal Year 1998: $1.633 billion

1999

COPS announces its COPS in Schools (CIS) grant program, following a number of high-profile school shooting incidents.
COPS funds its 100,000th community policing professional in May of 1999.
COPS announces its Tribal Resources Grant Program (TRGP).
Total COPS Office Appropriation for Fiscal Year 1999: $1.46 billion

2000

COPS launches its Police as Problem-Solvers and Peacemakers program, through which it awards $1 million to five law enforcement agencies.
COPS announces its Justice-Based After School (JBAS) and Value-Based Initiatives (VBI) programs.
COPS awards $12 million to 41 state law enforcement agencies for the purchase of 2,900 in-car cameras.
Total COPS Office Appropriation for Fiscal Year 2000: $913 million

2001

COPS launches two new series of publications: COPS Innovations and Problem-Oriented Policing Guides.
COPS awards $600,000 through JBAS to seven law enforcement agencies.
COPS supports the NYPD and Arlington County Police Department as they respond to the September 11 attacks.
Total COPS Office Appropriation for Fiscal Year 2001: $1.042 billion

2002

COPS awards more than $70 million through the Methamphetamine Initiative.
COPS awards more than $154 million through the Technology Program.
COPS announces $128 million in UHP grants that allow 367 agencies to hire 1,750 community policing professionals.
Total COPS Office Appropriation for Fiscal Year 2002: $1.1 billion

2003

COPS launches the Homeland Security Overtime Program (HSOP) and awards $59.6 million to 294 law enforcement agencies throughout the U.S.
The Interoperable Communications Technology Program is created by COPS. Through this program, COPS awards $66.5 million to 14 communities to develop integrated communications networks among emergency response agencies within metropolitan statistical areas.
COPS announces $178 million in UHP funding to 364 agencies to hire 2,334 community policing professionals.
COPS announces over $41 million in CIS grants. These grants support 152 law enforcement agencies in the hiring of 348 school resource officers.
Total COPS Office Appropriation for Fiscal Year 2003: $977 million

2004

COPS awards $47.2 million in grants through the Universal Hiring Program to be used by local police and sheriff’s departments to hire additional officers. The grants are awarded to 178 law enforcement agencies to hire 905 community policing officers.
COPS allocates $4.6 million in funding for 19 jurisdictions to combat methamphetamine. The funds are awarded under the COPS Methamphetamine Training Initiative, which assists law enforcement agencies in developing and enhancing comprehensive methamphetamine eradication strategies that emphasize training and technical assistance.
More than $82 million in grants is awarded to 23 communities in 17 states to develop interoperable communication networks. The grants cover the purchase of communication equipment, enhancements to communication infrastructures, data information sharing systems, and project management expenses associated with upgrading interoperable communication systems.
COPS awards $24 million to 114 tribal law enforcement agencies in 24 states under the COPS Tribal Resources Grant Program.
Total COPS Office Appropriation for Fiscal Year 2004: $748 million

2005

COPS awards more than $193 million to support tribal law enforcement agencies and community court initiatives.
COPS announces $10.2 million to fund the hiring of 65 community policing officers and 44 school resource officers.
COPS awards $14.7 million in grants to 187 local law enforcement agencies through the Secure Our Schools program.
COPS announces $92.7 million to 26 law enforcement agencies to develop interoperable data and communication networks.
Total COPS Office Appropriation for Fiscal Year 2005: $598 million

2006

COPS announces $14.8 million in grants to 174 local law enforcement agencies to enhance school safety.
COPS awards more than $12 million in grants to support tribal law enforcement initiatives.
COPS announces $8.8 million to enhance interoperable communication networks.
Total COPS Office Appropriation for Fiscal Year 2006: $472 million

2007

COPS announces $49.5 million in grants to fight methamphetamine.
COPS awards $159 million to establish integrated voice and data communication networks in 37 metropolitan statistical areas across 25 states and one U.S. territory.
COPS announces $14.7 million in support of tribal law enforcement initiatives.
COPS awards $14.8 million in grants to 152 local law enforcement agencies to enhance school safety.
COPS distributes its millionth technical assistance publication to the law enforcement field.
Total COPS Office Appropriation for Fiscal Year 2007: $541 million

2008

COPS kicks off the Child Sexual Predator Program (CSPP) with nearly $16 million in grant funding. Congress created CSPP to locate, arrest, and prosecute child sexual predators.
For the first time in three years, COPS offers its Universal Hiring Program to help law enforcement agencies hire community policing officers.
Total COPS Office Appropriation for Fiscal Year 2008: $587 million

2009

COPS awards $1 billion in Recovery Act funding to hire, rehire or retain nearly 5,000 law enforcement positions.
In record time, COPS develops a new, online application system, responds to 17,626 telephone calls, and 4,300 emails in order to make awards in July of 2009.
In October, Attorney General Eric Holder asks Pasadena Police Chief Bernard K. Melekian to lead the COPS Office.
Total COPS Office Appropriation for Fiscal Year 2009: $1.55 billion

2010

On the 16th anniversary of the COPS Office, the agency moves into a new building with several other DOJ components, including the Office on Violence Against Women.
The Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) is created and combines individual funding applications for OJP, OVW, and COPS tribal criminal justice assistance programs, allowing grantees to seek funding for all of their criminal justice needs through one application.
Total COPS Office Appropriation for Fiscal Year 2010: $791 million

2011

For the first time in its history, COPS Hiring Program applicants are asked to identify a public safety problem and describe in detail how they will use proven community policing strategies to address this problem.
Grantees that receive a COPS Hiring grant are required to take the Community Policing Self-Assessment Tool at the beginning and the end of the grant, which allows for a comprehensive and objective picture of partnership, problem solving, and organizational change successes, as well as areas that agencies may consider improving upon.
COPS has now disseminated 5 million training and technical assistance publications to the law enforcement field and trained over 600,000 law enforcement practitioners.
Total COPS Office Appropriation for Fiscal Year 2011: $495 million


	Office of Community Oriented Policing Services U.S. Department of Justice