We’re somewhat supportive of federal grants that help communities hire police officers. The only problem with these grants are that once the money runs out, these positions are usually eliminated for lack of funding.

According to this post on Congressman Cleaver’s blog, once the money for this three year program is depleted, local governments are REQUIRED to fund these jobs for an additional year!

“It was my pleasure to announce this week that over $9 million in grants have been awarded to hire police in Missouri’s Fifth District. The grants come as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which allocated $1 billion to fund the hiring and rehiring of law enforcement officers all across the country. Nationwide, the announcement will fund 4,699 officers for three years. Kansas City was awarded $8.3 million to hire 50 officers. Independence received $543,393 to hire 3 officers and Sugar Creek received $158,847 to hire one additional officer. Police departments receiving the grants will then be required to retain the grant-funded positions for a fourth year.” Read more…

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