Rep. Johnson, DeKalb County announce $500,000 COPS grant to protect children
Congressman: Federal funds to boost county’s Crimes Against Children Unit
ATLANTA, GA – U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, and DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis announced today in a joint news conference with U.S. Attorney Sally Yates’ office that DeKalb County will receive a $496,793 grant from Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office from its Child Sexual Predator Program (CSPP).
It is part of $9.3 million in COPS grants to 20 law enforcement agencies throughout the nation to reduce and prevent child endangerment and to protect communities from sexual predators. Fulton County received a $331,241 grant.
“There isn’t anything we do that is more important than supporting local law enforcement and giving them the tools needed to keep our communities safe,” said Johnson, who in July voted against House leadership efforts to cut COPS.
“These funds will help protect our children from the worst of the worst – child sexual predators.”
DeKalb CEO Ellis said the COPS funding would go a long way in boosting the county’s Crimes against Children Unit.
“It is our responsibility to keep children out of harm’s way and ensure those who perpetrate crimes against them are prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” said Ellis. “These funds are crucial to that effort.”
COPS Child Sexual Predator Program (CSPP) grants provide funding directly to law enforcement agencies to establish and/or enhance strategies to locate, arrest, and prosecute child sexual predators and exploiters and to enforce state sex offender registration laws. CSPP aims to support community policing initiatives throughout the United States by promoting partnerships between law enforcement, U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, the U.S. Marshals Service, and other community partners to collectively reduce and prevent child endangerment by sexual predators.
Since 1995, the COPS program has invested more than $177 million in Georgia law enforcement agencies, which was used to hire more than 2,400 officers and provide more than $24 million in technology upgrades.
In 2009, DeKalb County was awarded more than $3 million in COPS funding for 15 officer positions, and in 2010 Chief John King of Doraville received a COPS grant of $385,000 to hire two additional officers.
For more information, visit https://www.cops.usdoj.gov/.
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