KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department plans to use a $1.3 million federal grant to hire five new positions on the force, according to U.S. Attorney for Kansas Stephen McAllister.
KCKPD received the grant through the U.S. Justice Department’s Operation Relentless Pursuit (ORP) initiative, which aims to bolster federal law enforcement resources in cities with violent crime levels above the national average.
“This award will fund five new positions on the police department in Kansas City, Kansas,” McAllister said in a news release announcing the grant. “That additional manpower is part of our plan to make metro Kansas City safer.”
Along with the Kansas City metro, other cities in the initiative include Albuquerque, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Memphis and Milwaukee.
ORP task force members, which must be existing veteran officers, will work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and federal agencies to investigate gangs, drug trafficking and other violent crime. Funding will be used to hire new recruits to backfill positions within the department.
The grant to KCKPD is part of $61 million awarded to the initiative through the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and the Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA).
U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced the ORP initiative in December.
"We cannot succeed in eradicating crime without resources – the most vital of which are the brave men and women who serve and protect our communities each day," Barr said in the release. "These funds will boost the forces that need them most."
