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CPSB receives school security improvement grant from Department of Justice

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CPSB receives school security improvement grant from Department of Justice

The Calcasieu Parish School Board is the recipient of a $500,000 school security improvement grant from the Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

November 2023

From the Department of Justice

The Justice Department announced today several new commitments as part of its Comprehensive Strategy for Reducing Violent Crime. Instituted by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in May 2021, the strategy focuses on harnessing federal resources, intelligence, and expertise as a force-multiplier with state, local, and Tribal law enforcement. 

Since its creation in 1994, the COPS Office has advanced community policing nationwide and provided grants to over 13,000 state, local, territorial, and Tribal law enforcement agencies to fund the hiring and redeployment of approximately 138,000 officers. Funding highlights from the grants announced today include:

  • Nearly $217 million to 394 agencies through the COPS Hiring Program (CHP) for the hiring of 1,730 entry-level career law enforcement officers in an effort to create and preserve jobs and increase community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts.
  • More than $73.6 million to 206 school districts, state, and local governments, and other public agencies through the COPS School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP) to improve security at schools and on school grounds.
  • Approximately $43.6 million to support crisis intervention teams, de-escalation training, accreditation efforts, and innovative community policing strategies through the COPS Community Policing Development (CPD) program.

Complete lists of all program award recipients, including funding amounts, can be found here.

In Calcasieu, these grant funds will be used to purchase additional weapons detectors and radios to facilitate communication between campuses and law enforcement.

This project was supported, in whole or in part, by federal award number 15JCOPS-23-GG-04897-SCAX awarded to the Calcasieu Parish School Board by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. The opinions contained herein are those of the author(s) or contributor(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific individuals, agencies, companies, products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the author(s), contributor(s), or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues.