The Lakewood Police is among about 150 New Jersey law enforcement agencies who have submitted applications to the COPS program, requesting federal funds to hire more police officers, Police Chief Rob Lawson tells TLS. It’s the third year the Lakewood Police Department applied for the grant, Lawson says. The first two years, it was denied.
COPS, Community Oriented Police Services, received 2,708 applications from departments nationwide seeking $2 billion in grants, but there is only $246.8 million earmarked. The LPD requested approximately $2 million.
Grants cover costs for the the first three years of the officers’ jobs, and agencies getting the grants must pay for the officer after that and must agree to keep the officer for at least one year after the grant funds run out.
The Lakewood Police Department is seeking to hire 6 more officers in the coming months. TLS.
thank you Chief – we need more officers to stamp out the crime and druges in Lakewood
This town’s growth is like no other town in NJ with new homes build monthly…. which means taxes…..where is the money going…. FIND IT!
We need more cops.
It’s about time. The LPD has lost I believe somewhere between 25-30 officers over the past few years from officers retiring getting severely injured and from retirement. I’d love to see the LPD putting cops out on foot and bicycles in the neighborhoods like they used to. As a resident of Hearthstone, I feel that it helped seeing those officers directed specifically to my neighborhood made all the difference in cleaning up the problem!
so happy something is being done to try to get more officers. this is what we need and i hope it works. best of luck to you.
How many officers are out on Lakewood streets at once?
I believe the police department is about 30 officers short.
Number 5 as few as 7 on midnights depending on the day. But on average between all of the shifts I would say approximately 9 officers on days and evenings and 8 on midnights