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Phase I
Phase I was the first COPS Office program created to help meet the need for
more officers on America's streets.
In 1993, Congress made available funds for the Police Hiring Supplement (PHS)
program, a competitive program administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance
(BJA) that awarded grants to law enforcement jurisdictions to hire additional
officers.
The PHS program was able to fund only 1 out of every 10 applications. Phase I
was created to fund some of the eligible jurisdictions not funded under PHS. To
be eligible for a Phase I grant, a jurisdiction had to have applied for PHS
funding, but been denied funding based on the limited PHS funds available. These
law enforcement jurisdictions also had to demonstrate a public safety need for
more officers, a community policing strategy, and a plan to retain the
additional officers after federal funding had ceased. Of the 2,506 applicants,
392 were awarded grants that funded up to 75 percent of the total salary and
benefits of each officer awarded over three years, up to a maximum of $75,000
per officer or 50 percent of the total salary and benefit costs. The remaining
costs were paid by state and local matching funds.
First announced in October 1994, Phase I awarded a total of $200.2 million to
392 law enforcement agencies for the hiring of 2,779 new officers.
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