The Moscow Police Department will be able to hire two new officers thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Moscow was one of four Idaho departments to receive the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant, and part of the 238 departments nationwide out of 2,712 applicants.
The grant is an award of $420,734 and will pay for the two new officers during the first three years of their employment.
David Duke, MPD chief of police, said the grant will be used to fund a school resource officer and a traffic officer.
The school resource officer will collaborate with the Moscow School District and the University of Idaho to work effectively within the community. The traffic officer will be partnering with the Idaho Department of Transportation, UI and the city to address road rage, improve response to accidents and work to determine causal factors of accidents and other incidents.
In 2009, MPD had to eliminate three positions as a result of a decrease in funding from UI. The grant will allow the return of the school resource officer, and will make the traffic officer position full-time instead of part-time.
Since the cutbacks, the police department has been applying for the grant.
“This year we definitively addressed the specific positions,” Duke said.
The application focused on the philosophies behind the positions and the importance of the dynamics they serve within the community, Duke said.
This was a change from previous years where the applications focused on crime statistics and financial need.
MPD is currently administering tests for candidates and plans on being completed by Nov.17. When new officers have been selected, MPD will be eligible to receive the funding from the COPS grant.