"The Oglala Sioux Tribe is about to lose two-thirds of its police force when its federal grant for community policing runs out next month. The tribe's Department of Public Safety will have to let go 59 of its 88 patrol officers when its Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant expires. The tribe's dilemma highlights a problem with using federal grant money to pay for local services: the federal government, not local governments, decides where the money goes and how much is provided.

Almost every year since it started, COPS has added more programs, but the amount of money it has available to spend has steadily fallen. The Bush administration's proposed 2007 budget amount for COPS is a mere $272 million.

With an increasing number of programs and an increasingly smaller budget, there's less money to go around. Tribal police departments aren't the only ones feeling the pinch of fewer dollars available to continue grants. They also should know that federal grants are not a permanent source of funds for police officers."

Get the Story:
Editorial: COPS grants don't last (The Rapid City Journal 2/23)

Relevant Links:
COPS, Department of Justice - http://www.cops.usdoj.gov

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