The COPS Hiring Program (CHP) is a competitive award program designed to provide funding directly to law enforcement agencies to hire and/or rehire additional career law enforcement officers/deputies in an effort to increase their community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts.

Anticipated outcomes of the CHP program awards include engagement in planned community partnerships, implementation of projects to analyze and assess problems, implementation of changes to personnel and agency management in support of community policing, and increased capacity of agency to engage in community policing activities.

Eligibility

Eligible entities include:

• Local law enforcement agencies
• State law enforcement agencies
• Units of local government (e.g. counties, cities, school districts)
• Federally recognized Indian Tribes and their public agencies
• Public government agencies

Eligible applicants are limited to established and operational local, state, territorial, and tribal law enforcement agencies that have primary law enforcement authority for the jurisdiction served.

Match Requirement

There is a minimum 25 percent local cost share (matching funds) requirement, unless a waiver is approved.

How to Apply

This grant has a two-step application process.

1. Step 1: Submit an SF-424 in Grants.gov. Grants.gov Application Deadline: Thursday, July 23, 2026 (4:59 PM ET).
2. Submit the full application including attachments in JustGrants. JustGrants Application Deadline: Wednesday, July 29, 2026 (4:59 PM ET).

Please note that applications submitted through Grants.gov requires accounts for both Grants.gov and SAM.gov.

If you need help with Grants.gov, you can call 800-518-4726 or email support@grants.gov.

If you need help with SAM.gov, you can call 866-606-8220.

Contact

COPS Office Response Center
Phone: 800-421-6770
Email: AskCopsRC@usdoj.gov
Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday–Friday (closed federal
holidays)

Deadline

This grant has a two-step application process, and both deadlines must be met for the application to be considered complete.

• Grants.gov Application Deadline: Thursday, July 23, 2026 (4:59 PM ET).
• JustGrants Application Deadline: Wednesday, July 29, 2026 (4:59 PM ET).