Sheriff’s Office will get $250K federal grant
MOUNT VERNON — The Skagit County Sheriff’s Office will receive a $250,000 grant from the Department of Justice to hire two new deputies as part of a federal program to create or preserve jobs in law enforcement, according to an announcement Tuesday from Congresswoman Suzan DelBene.
The grant comes from the federal COPS Hiring Program, which has made $124 million available nationwide to go toward hiring and retaining officers with a focus on crime prevention.
The federal money will cover 75 percent of the salaries and benefits of newly hired or rehired officers for the next three years, according to DelBene’s office.
“This funding is great news for Skagit County,” the congresswoman said, in a statement. “It will allow the sheriff’s office to hire additional officers to support their ongoing hard work keeping the community safe.”
Chad Clark, the sheriff’s office chief of patrol operations, said Tuesday that the final decision on how the grant is used will be determined by the county’s board of commissioners. But the additional staff should help boost preventative enforcement measures, he said, including the identification of the county’s high-crime areas and the capacity of the sheriff’s office to follow up on crime tips from local residents.
“We were really happy we got it,” Clark said. “A lot of this can be used for proactive patrol.”