A federal $500,000 grant announced this week by the state’s congressional delegation will enable the Warwick Police Department to help pay for four additional officers over the next four years.

“We had plans to hire people anyway,” Mayor Scott Avedisian said yesterday.

As the department is shy of its complement, grant funds will enable the addition of those two plus another two.

Avedisian explained that the city is obligated to pick up a quarter of the cost for the first year, followed by half the cost in the second and three quarters in the third.

As the city had budgeted for a full complement, Avedisian anticipated there would be some savings in the current year. Also, as the department has personnel who are already qualified, Avedisian said, “we can start at any time.”

Col. Stephen McCartney said yesterday he was “pleasantly surprised” by the award. He said the funding would enable the department to raise manpower to 171.

“As you may recall,” McCartney wrote in response to an inquiry yesterday, “back in 2009 the Warwick PD had to reduce its police manpower [by attrition] from a complement of 180 officers to 163 officers [loss of 17 positions]. The manpower loss caused us to cut our community police unit by 50 percent and our traffic unit by 40 percent along with trying to keep our smaller patrol platoons at effective manning levels.”

McCartney said at the same time of the cuts, “constituent expectations along with calls for service stayed the same and issues such as Open Records and yearly changes to state laws actually increased WPD service commitments.” He said this is the second COPS Award that Warwick PD has received, the first having been in 2011 that brought manning up to 167.

At present, Warwick PD is anticipating being at 164 officers by the end of November 2014 with one recruit actively training in the present session of the RI Municipal Police Training Academy that will graduate in December 2014.

“As a result of the grant award and salary budget allocations, we are working harder to reach the new manning level by May 2015,” the chief said.

He said the recruit list is a mix of personnel some of whom are active law enforcement officers from other Rhode Island departments and officers from out of state departments. The officers who are already police officers from Rhode Island will already be certified as police officers and can be sworn in right after the background investigations/physicals are done. The officers from outside of the state will have to attend the RI Municipal Police Recruit Class in January to participate in those courses of instruction that will allow them to complete their Rhode Island certification, The chief explained.

The $500,000 award is part of a $625,000 grant announced by U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and U.S. Representatives Jim Langevin and David Cicilline on Tuesday. In addition to Warwick, the Woonsocket department will receive $125,000 to hire one officer.

Administered by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office, these COPS Hiring Program (CHP) grants will help put more police officers on the streets, reduce crime, and help both cities fill budget gaps, according to a release. 

“As a long-time supporter of the COPS program, I am pleased that Warwick and Woonsocket are receiving this federal funding to help put more cops on the beat.  Our police officers do an outstanding job and these funds will give local police departments critical resources to continue their important work,” U.S. Senator Jack Reed, who helped create the COPS program in the 1990s and serves on the Appropriations subcommittee, which oversees COPS funding, said in a statement.

“Municipal budgets have been stretched thin, but reducing violence and keeping Rhode Islanders safe has been and must continue to be a top priority. This COPS funding comes at a critical time and will allow these police departments to hire additional staff and further improve public safety services in their communities,” Congressman Jim Langevin said in a statement.

This year’s CHP grants provide 75 percent funding for approved entry-level salaries and benefits for three years 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.  

A total of $123 million in CHP grants were awarded to 215 different local law enforcement agencies across the country.  Grantees for the 2014 hiring program were selected based on their fiscal needs, local crime rates and their community policing plans.

The chief thanked the congressional delegation, the mayor and the Warwick City Council for “their unwavering support that will go a long way to allowing the men and women of the Warwick PD to keep the streets safe for the constituents of the city of Warwick.”