New Castle, PA – Lt. Gov. Austin Davis stopped by the New Castle Police Department today to announce that the Shapiro-Davis Administration has provided local law enforcement agencies with $3.04 million in grants to help them attract high-quality recruits and fill 692 vacant positions across the Commonwealth.
“When we first ran for office, Governor Shapiro and I promised to ensure that our police are well-staffed and well-funded, and we’re delivering on that promise,” said Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, who serves as chair of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD). “In our first two state budgets, we secured funding for 800 new state trooper cadets, and we’ve awarded grants to 108 local police departments to help them recruit and train 692 new officers. In addition, we’re taking a comprehensive approach to making our communities safer, investing more into community-based programs to reduce violence, doubling our investment in the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, creating a new statewide initiative to provide more afterschool learning opportunities and safe spaces for young people, increasing funding for domestic violence services and staffing up a statewide office of gun violence prevention.”
Davis joined New Castle City Administrator Chris Frye and Police Chief David Cumo at a news conference today to highlight a new $35,000 grant that PCCD awarded to the city police department to recruit and train seven new officers.
"At the moment, one of the biggest challenges in law enforcement is recruitment and retention of officers,” said Police Chief Cumo. “Thanks to the funds obtained through this PCCD grant for recruiting, we will be able to offer hiring bonuses as another incentive for applicants who are considering applying to our department to begin or continue their career in law enforcement."
"This $35,000 grant will play a key role in helping the department continue this important work, strengthening public safety and ensuring New Castle remains a place where everyone can feel secure and supported," said state Rep. Marla Brown. "The award is also a reflection of the dedication of New Castle's police leadership and the hard work they have done to position their department for success in a time of evolving law enforcement needs."
This grant was part of the eighth round of grants through PCCD’s Law Enforcement Recruitment Incentives solicitation, which opened in October 2023. This round included more than $370,000 in total funding for 19 law enforcement agencies across the Commonwealth. New Castle received another $35,000 recruitment grant in early 2024 to supplement an earlier award in 2023, also for recruitment needs. Collectively, both grant awards should end up supporting 14 new officers in the city.
The goal of the Law Enforcement Recruitment Incentives program has been to support Act 120 training and recruitment activities for law enforcement officers. (Act 120 is a mandatory training program for municipal police officers in Pennsylvania.) Eligible law enforcement agencies could request up to $7,000 per new officer to support costs associated with the training or apply for up to $5,000 per new officer to support stipends, signing bonuses or marketing efforts.
In addition to funding for local law enforcement agencies, the Shapiro-Davis Administration has secured funding to hire 800 new state troopers for the Pennsylvania State Police. In total, the Administration has provided the funding to help recruit and train nearly 1,500 law enforcement officers.