Press Releases

Today, Congresswoman Suzan DelBene applauded an announcement by the Department of Justice that the Skagit County Sheriff’s office will receive $250,000 in COPS grant funding to hire two additional officers, part of $124 million made available nationally by the Department of Justice COPS Office, COPS Hiring Program (CHP) grant to create and/or preserve law enforcement jobs nationwide.

“This funding is great news for Skagit County,” said Congresswoman DelBene. “It will allow the Sheriff’s office to hire additional officers to support their ongoing hard work keeping the community safe.”

CHP grants go directly to law enforcement agencies to hire new and/or rehire career law enforcement officers in an effort to increase their community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts.  Priority consideration was given to agencies that requested officer positions in order to deploy school resource officers, build trust between the police and community, hire military veterans, focus on homicide or gun violence, have a neighborhood or other geographic area designated as a Promise Zone as part of the President's Promise Zone Initiative, and/or have experienced an unanticipated catastrophic event.

This year’s CHP grants provide 75 percent funding for approved entry-level salaries and benefits for three years (36 months) for newly-hired, full-time sworn 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.