Attorney General Loretta Lynch is announcing Justice Department grants Monday to help police departments across the country hire new officers, including $3.1 million earmarked for Dallas.
The $119 million in federal funding is being announced in Dallas, the site of an ambush shooting in July that left five police officers dead, at the start of the federally designated National Community Policing Week (Oct. 2-8).
Taking part in the forum will be Lynch, U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas, and two members of the Dallas Cowboys known for their work to bring communities and law enforcement together -- Jason Witten and Barry Church.
On Tuesday, Lynch will join Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Erik Wilson at a National Night Out event at the University of North Texas at Dallas.
The grants, provided by the Justice Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, are being awarded to 184 law enforcement agencies and are intended to create or preserve more than 900 positions. Almost all of the jobs will be new hires, though the grants will allow some officers to either be rehired or protected from being laid off.
Dallas, which Lynch said already has a strong community policing model, is scheduled to receive $3.1 million to hire 25 new officers.
The forum will be streamed live on the DOJ Facebook page at 2:30 p.m.
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"It's been tremendously heartening that Dallas has stuck together through all of that," Lynch said. "I thought frankly it was just a tragic irony that in a community where you had police officers who were making sure that the protest went forward as planned and as authorized, that's the city that someone chose to come to and try to sow dissension."
Lynch said there's broad agreement, including among protesters, about the need for an effective and responsive police department that keeps the community safe. But she said there's a simultaneous demand from the public for departments that are accountable and transparent about their decisions.
"There's a hunger out there in so many communities, particularly minority communities, for a positive relationship with law enforcement," she said.
The recipients of the grants include large cities like Los Angeles, Detroit, Louisville and Charlotte, but also much smaller agencies in Biddeford, Maine, Twin Falls, Idaho and Carlisle, Iowa.
The goal of National Community Policing Week is to highlight the need for strong relationships between communities and law enforcement, an especially urgent Justice Department priority in light of a months-long stretch of high-profile slayings of both police officers and citizens in not only Dallas but in communities including Baton Rouge, Charlotte and suburban St. Paul, Minnesota.
"The recent events we've seen, particularly this summer, have raised the visibility of this issue beyond just the communities that have traditionally felt impacted by it," Lynch said in an interview with The Associated Press.
National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer, better places to live.
"Established in 1984 from a Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) grant, the goal of National Night Out is to build relationships with and between communities and law enforcement, to promote crime prevention efforts, and to foster collaborative engagement among neighbors who are committed to working together to keep each other safe. The Attorney General also attended National Night Out earlier in the summer during her visit to Detroit for the Justice Department’s first Justice Forum," the DOJ said Monday in a news release.
Other events planned for the week include a town hall discussion on diversity in law enforcement and an awards ceremony, both in Washington.
