BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — Broken Arrow police received $250,000 in federal funding to strengthen public safety across the city, with the money going directly toward hiring two new officers over the next three years.
The grant comes from the Department of Justice's COPS Hiring Program, which provides funding to law enforcement agencies to hire additional officers and increase their community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts.
"We brought back our school resource officer program and with that we had to take a couple of positions away from patrol and so these new hires will go towards backfilling patrol which will help field calls and all of this," Sgt. Jordan Sawyer said.
WATCH: Broken Arrow police receive $250K federal grant to hire two new officers
The federal grant will cover 40% of the officers' salaries, while the city will match 60% of the costs. The grant includes nationally recognized training requirements for school resource officers and runs for three years.
Local residents shopping in Broken Arrow's Rose District expressed support for the additional police presence.
"I think that's great. We want to keep Broken Arrow a nice safe place for all of the wonderful businesses that we have here," Brenda Allen said.
Her husband David Allen agreed, noting the importance of safety for local businesses.
"I think it's good. Wherever you can feel safe, I mean you go to places that you feel safe. If not, the businesses will go down and it's good for everybody," David Allen said.
The additional officers will help patrol the community during busy times, and a future shopping season.
"You aren't going to have people speeding through here and you aren't going to get stuff stolen out of your car which happens a lot this time of year," David Allen said.
Sawyer emphasized the importance of having more officers on patrol.
"Our officers are out there every single day working to keep the public safe and the more officers that we can have that can be out patrolling... the greater we are going to be able to provide a great public safety service," Sawyer said.
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