The role of the COPS Office in community policing

This paper explores the relationship between community‐policing and grants provided by the Office of Community‐Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) in the US Justice Department. Community policing data were gathered via a survey of 700 municipal and county law enforcement agencies employing more than 100 full‐time sworn officers/deputies. Grant data were gathered on the same agencies via a Freedom of Information Act request filed with the COPS Office. Census data were used for control purposes. General findings suggest that COPS funding is strongly associated with community‐policing. Specific findings are: first, hiring grants were more associated with community‐policing than grants designed to promote innovative programs and second, agencies with several COPS grants were more likely to report community‐policing programs than agencies with fewer COPS grants.