ATLANTA — Sen. Jon Ossoff is touting a nearly $250 million block of federal money to go toward police hiring as funding that will "keep Georgia families safe from violent crime."
The money was secured for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program in the 2022 fiscal year federal budget signed into law last month by President Joe Biden.
That represents a $9 million increase over the 2021 funding for the program, which Ossoff's office said had "helped more than 13,000 cities and towns hire nearly 1340,000 additional officers."
According to the senator's office, Georgia law enforcement agencies received more than $8.5 million in grants through the program in 2020. The measure was also supported by Georgia's other senator, Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock. Both senators were signatories to a letter sent last year calling for the funding.
“I will continue working to keep Georgia families safe from violent crime,” Ossoff said in a statement.
In the letter sent last year signed by Ossoff and Warnock, the COPS Hiring Program was credited as a "fiscally responsible solution to ensure that our communities remain safe."
"When officers establish a presence on their patrols using community-policing principles, they can develop positive relationships with the communities they serve. In turn, these relationships increase law enforcement’s ability to solve local crimes and resolve public safety problems,” Georgia's senators and the other signatories said. “This proactive approach to policing prevents crime from occurring, saving taxpayers the high societal costs associated with crime, incarceration, and services for victims.”