Utah police to get $5M from stimulus

The latest round of federal stimulus money will hit the streets dressed in blue.

The White House announced this week that six Utah police departments will receive $5 million from the Community Oriented Policing Services Hiring and Recovery Program to hire or save the jobs of 25 police officers.

The grant money will pay the officers' salaries for three years.

Salt Lake City will receive $2 million to hire 10 patrol officers. Without that money, the department would have left four positions unfilled and pulled six officers off task-force operations such as the Metro Gang Unit, officials said.

"(The funding) will enable us to not only maintain our staffing levels but increase our visible presence in the community during difficult economic times," Salt Lake Police Chief Chris Burbank said in a statement Wednesday.

Seventy-four Utah agencies applied for more than $50 million in funding, but only six agencies around the state were awarded grant money.

West Valley City received $1.76 million to hire nine officers; South Salt Lake received $537,000 to hire three officers; and La Verkin ($188,000), Roosevelt ($216,000) and the Goshute Reservation Police Department ($291,000) each will hire one additional officer.

Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker, who has met with the Obama administration multiple times to discuss how stimulus money should be spent, said the grant supports the city's commitment to public safety.

"We now have the funding to add more patrol officers to our force and increase our ability to serve our daytime population, which almost doubles every day," Becker said.

Aaron Falk