Bill Aims to Address Law Enforcement Recruitment Challenges and Lack of Trust Between Officers and Communities They Serve
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI) reintroduced bipartisan legislation that aims to strengthen the relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve by incentivizing recruits to work in the communities where they live. The Strong Communities Act – which Peters introduced with U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) – would provide federal grants for local law enforcement recruits who agree to attend school or academy and then serve in a law enforcement agency in their respective communities. The bill passed unanimously in the Senate in 2023.
“By incentivizing officers to work in the communities they call home, we can build trust between local law enforcement and the citizens they work to keep safe,” said Senator Peters. “This bipartisan bill would make progress to strengthen our communities while also helping to recruit officers in our most in-demand communities.”
Many communities across the country are facing both a law enforcement recruitment and a trust crisis. The Strong Communities Act aims to help facilitate improved relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve. This legislation would make recruits eligible to receiving funding from the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, which can be used to decrease the financial burden of education and training programs. In return, applicants would be required to serve as a full-time public safety officer for at least four years and complete their service in a local law enforcement agency located within seven miles of their residence, where they have resided for at least five years. Or, if the recruit resides in a county with less than 150,000 residents, the recruit could serve within 20 miles of their residence, where the applicant has resided for at least five years.
“The Police Officers Association of Michigan is proud to support Senator Peters’ bipartisan Strong Communities Act that would reinvigorate community policing,” said Kenneth E. Grabowski, Legislative Director of the Police Officers Association of Michigan (POAM). “This commonsense bill would strengthen law enforcement agencies’ efforts to recruit officers locally and help police officers build relationships and trust with the communities and people they work to serve and protect.”
“This legislation helps build on the community-policing model and, we hope, will help us address the recruiting crisis in law enforcement. The bill establishes a grant program for local law enforcement agencies to assist in recruiting officers from their own community. The program created in this bill will allow recipient agencies to pay for recruits to attend a law enforcement training program provided that they serve in an agency in their community for at least four years. This will help local agencies recruit candidates from their own backyard and reduce the financial burden of their education and training to be law enforcement officers. We’re grateful to Senators Peters and Cornyn for their leadership and advocacy of this bill,” said Patrick Yoes, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police.
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