Gloucester County seeking federal grant to hire Sherrif’s officers

    Gloucester County’s Sheriff’s Department is looking for help from the feds to hire four additional officers. The department is applying for a grant for more than $800,000 to help cover what it says is a 10-officer shortage.

    Responsible for things like court security, holding cell watches and inmate transportation, the department needs to be in a lot of places, and a handful of recent retirements have created a gap.

    The department is hoping for an $812,976 federal grant through the Community Oriented Policing Services program, the Gloucester County Times reports, which would pay for four officers’ salaries and benefits for three years. After that, the county would have to fund the officers for at least a year.

    Past COPS grant applications have been unsuccessful, and the department may end up changing its request.

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