Warwick, Woonsocket police receive grants to hire officers

U.S. SEN. JACK REED, along with fellow senator, Sheldon Whitehouse, and U.S. Reps. James R. Langevin and David N. Cicilline, announced $625,000 in COPS grants for the communities of Warwick and Woonsocket to add to their ranks. Warwick will receive $500,000 for four officers, Woonsocket, $125,000 for one officer. / BLOOMBERG FILE PHOTO/JOSHUA ROBERTS
U.S. SEN. JACK REED, along with fellow senator, Sheldon Whitehouse, and U.S. Reps. James R. Langevin and David N. Cicilline, announced $625,000 in COPS grants for the communities of Warwick and Woonsocket to add to their ranks. Warwick will receive $500,000 for four officers, Woonsocket, $125,000 for one officer. / BLOOMBERG FILE PHOTO/JOSHUA ROBERTS

WARWICK – Police departments in Warwick and Woonsocket received federal grants to add to their ranks.
The funds, from the U.S. Department of Justice’s community oriented policing services office, were announced by U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and U.S. Reps. James R. Langevin and David N. Cicilline on Tuesday.
Warwick will receive $500,000 to hire four officers, and Woonsocket will receive $125,000 to hire one officer.
“As a long-time supporter of the COPS program, I am pleased that Warwick and Woonsocket are receiving this federal funding to help put more cops on the beat. Our police officers do an outstanding job, and these funds will give local police departments critical resources to continue their important work,” said Reed, who helped create the COPS program in the 1990s and serves on the appropriations subcommittee which oversees COPS funding.
Said Langevin, “Municipal budgets have been stretched thin, but reducing violence and keeping Rhode Islanders safe has been and must continue to be a top priority. This COPS funding comes at a critical time and will allow these police departments to hire additional staff and further improve public safety services in their communities.”
The grants provide 75 percent funding for approved entry-level salaries and benefits for three years for newly-hired, full-time officer positions (including filling existing unfunded vacancies) or for rehired officers who have been laid off, or are scheduled to be laid off on a future date, as a result of local budget cuts.
Grantees for the 2014 hiring program were selected based on their fiscal needs, local crime rates and their community policing plans.

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