KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The City of Knoxville will receive $200,000 from the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing (COPS) that will support practices and strategies for creative approaches to preventing crime and de-escalation training, announced Acting United States Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III.
The Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) has announced over $33 million in funding to advance the practice of community policing in law enforcement. Community Policing Development (CPD) program funds are used to support promising practices through the development and testing of innovative strategies; building knowledge about effective practices and outcomes; and supporting new, creative approaches to preventing crime and promoting safe communities. Approximately $13 million will support the creation and delivery of national level de-escalation training efforts, as well as state and local law enforcement agency efforts to build and maintain their officers’ de-escalation proficiency.
The funding awarded to the City of Knoxville will help enhance the Knoxville Police Department’s capacity to implement, evaluate, and monitor de-escalation techniques. De-escalation techniques have the potential to help prevent the need for use of force in many police and community encounters.
The COPS Office is the federal component of the Department of Justice responsible for advancing community policing nationwide. The only Department of Justice agency with policing in its name, the COPS Office was established in 1994 and has been the cornerstone of the nation’s crime fighting strategy with grants, a variety of knowledge resource products and training and technical assistance. Through the years, the COPS Office, has become the go-to organization for law enforcement agencies across the country and continues to listen to the field and provide the resources that are needed to reduce crime and build trust between law enforcement and the communities served. The COPS Office has invested more than $14 billion to advance community policing, including grants awarded to more than 13,000 state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies to fund the hiring and redeployment of more than 134,000 officers. More information on all the awards announced can be found on the COPS Office website at https://cops.usdoj.gov/cpd-award.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
