HARTFORD, AL –Hartford will receive a $20,277 grant from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) through the U.S. Department of Justice, Congressman Bright announced today.  The Save Our Schools (SOS) Grant will provide the Hartford Police Department with funds to purchase school safety resources and establish school safety programs within the community.  Funding under this program may be used for security assessments, safety training for students and personnel, and any other measure that may provide a significant increase in security. 

“This is great news for Hartford,” Bright said. “As a former mayor, I had a first-hand view of the success of the COPS program in Alabama’s communities. With the funding from the Save Our Schools Grant, the Hartford Police Department will be able to provide the resources to educate children about the importance of school safety and prevent school violence throughout the city.  This is a smart use of tax payer money that will improve safety and security for youth in communities throughout southeast Alabama.”

Congressman Bright voted to extend the COPS program when he supported passage of the COPS Improvements Act of 2009.  The COPS program began in 1994 and was responsible for assisting local law enforcement agencies in hiring 117,000 additional police officers from 1995 to 2005. Additionally, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study spanning three years credited COPS with preventing over 200,000 crimes, one third of those being violent crimes.