Akron seeks $1.5M federal grant to increase police hiring

Akron City Council on Monday approved the Akron Police Department’s plan to seek a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice through the COPS Hiring Program.

CHP provides direct funding to law enforcement agencies to hire and/or rehire additional career law enforcement officers. The program aims to increase policing capacity by assessing problems, making changes and increasing community engagement.

Council approved the step as part of its consent agenda.

Police Capt. Agostino Micozzi made a case for the grant application during the council’s Rules and Public Safety Committee meeting June 24, saying the funds will help to reduce gun violence in the community.

“We have a finite level of funding available for police officers,” Micozzi said. “This will allow us to increase the number of people that are working on this particular problem for the four-year period, so we're looking forward to it.”

The department calculated it will be able to hire 12 additional officers in the next full academy in January or February 2025 if it receives the funds.

The grant program runs for three years, after which the department must retain these offices for at least one more year with its own funds, Micozzi said.

If awarded, the grant will allow the APD to move veteran officers into more focused roles, Micozzi said. He added the department would increase personnel in the Anti-Violence Bureau by nine and add a position in the Persons Unit, who will be a detective who focuses solely on shootings, particularly nonfatal incidents.

The award would also fund the creation of two positions in the Community Engagement Team, which focuses on collaborating with violence prevention organizations alongside Mayor Shammas Malik’s office.

“We're specifically geared toward working with some of the groups that we've heard about already — the violence prevention programs,” Micozzi said. “We will be that full-time liaison with those folks to help their efforts.”

Micozzi said he also wants the violence prevention programs to understand what the APD is doing internally to investigate the crimes.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron seeks $1.5M federal grant to increase police hiring