LANSING, Mich. — The Lansing police department is poised to add five new officers to the force thanks to a grant from the Department of Justice.
The grant allocates about $125,000 dollars for the salary and benefits of each officer.
Councilmember, Patricia Spitzley says the Department of Justice awarded the grant last year but the ask to approve the money wasn’t received until recently.
Under the guidelines of the grant, the city will have to match a portion of the grant money to train these new officers.
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The entry-level officers will be used to address an increase in violent crimes within the city.
“These are officers that are going to be dedicated to patrolling at night. One of the issues they found is that there are these large gatherings of young people in different parks. And they move from park to park. So these officers will be used to supplement patrol officers," said Councilmember Patricia Spitzley.
Mayor Andy Schor says the city plans to get the new officers hired right away.
“We also of course have options with having officers in the academy with the preference is to bring them on immediately so we are hopeful that the ones we have in right now are going to clear background which seems pretty positive and we will go into hiring immediately," said Mayor Schor during a virtual City Council meeting on Monday.
Schor says the department has a pipeline of officers who are in different stages of the hiring process because of retirements and firings.
The grant requires Lansing to put up about $900,000 for training and equipment.
This is a three-year award from the DOJ with the promise from the city that each new officer will remain on the payroll for at least a year after the grant program ends.
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