Outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder Monday announced a new federal program to target high-crime cities, including Chicago, Ill., where shootings and other violent crime have skyrocketed.
Holder, who said last week he will resign once a replacement is confirmed, also announced that the Justice Department has awarded $124 million in hiring grants to 215 police departments across the country for the Community Oriented Policing Program, also known as COPS.
Holder said the money would pay for nearly 950 new officers, who will mostly take on the job of community policing aimed at reducing street crime.
The grant gives police departments the money to pay for 75 percent of the salary and benefits for new hires for three years.
“The impact of this critical support will extend far beyond the creation and preservation of law enforcement jobs,” Holder said. “It will strengthen relationships between these officers and the communities they serve, improve public safety and keep law enforcement officers on the beat.”
Holder on Monday also announced the launch of the Violence Reduction Network, which will operate in five high-crime communities, including Chicago.
In Chicago over the weekend, gun violence wounded 40 and killed five, including a 13-year-old boy, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Holder said the new program would combine federal law enforcement with local police and community leaders for “strategic, intensive training and technical assistance” as well as other support in an effort to curb violence.
“It’s predicated on the notion that, although violent crime is in some ways a fundamentally local problem, it is not one that any community can meet in isolation,” Holder said Monday.
The new program will also serve Detroit, Mich.; Wilmington, Del.; Camden, N.J.; and in Oakland and Richmond, Calif.
