The Trump administration is offering grants of tens of millions of dollars to cities across the US to create more Memphis-style enforcement surges – on the condition that they abandon progressive ideologies on policing, reported The Guardian.
The US Department of Justice says it will announce up
to four finalist cities that will split $300m in grant funding under a federal
“Model Cities” policing initiative (MCI) next month, setting the stage for some
of the largest federal policing grants ever awarded to individual US cities.
In exchange for the funding, cities are required to
comply with federal immigration enforcement requests, enact conservative
policies on anti-homelessness rules, and potentially repay millions of dollars
in the event of a surge in violent crime or “civil unrest”, according to a
grant document.
The document cites
Washington DC and Memphis, Tennessee – two cities with national guard troops
patrolling the streets – as a model to emulate. The administration has so far
defied calls
to suspend its controversial taskforce in Memphis, following four
officer-involved deaths since its launch last September.
“That’s not a model I’d be looking for,” said Steven
Reed, the mayor of Montgomery, Alabama. Reed said he had seen the grant and
passed on applying. “Everybody wants a quick fix, and no one wants to invest in
the root cause of the issue,” he said.
Despite the significant funding boost on offer, Reed
is one of several leaders of large municipalities with Democratic majorities
who have signaled they will not even consider applying for the grant.
The justice department has offered policing grants to
cities through programs of the office of community oriented policing services
(Cops) since 1994, disbursing more than $20bn since then. The Cops office of
the justice department offered city governments about $700m this fiscal year to
supplement hiring, training and equipment.
The MCI, a product of funding from Donald Trump’s One
Big Beautiful Bill Act, offers another $300m to two to four municipalities with
more than 100,000 residents. Grant funding will last three years under the
program.
Unlike most previous grants, awards will seemingly be
awarded after evaluation by senior political appointees in the justice
department, and not through a more politically neutral recommendation process
of peer review, said Amy Solomon, a senior fellow at the Council on Criminal
Justice, who previously served as assistant attorney general of the office of
justice programs under Joe Biden.
The grant guidelines require applicants to have
documented “buy-in and support” across the local government – mayors, sheriff’s
offices, city councils and county commissions – as a condition of approval.
The initiative focuses on reducing violent crime, to
“surge substantial, targeted federal funding into select cities”, according to
a justice department presentation on
the grants. City governments can use the money to hire more police and fund
substance abuse recovery programs, prisoner re-entry programs, facilities,
training and other initiatives.
A justice department spokesperson claimed
jurisdictions have “expressed intense interest” in the initiative.
“Senior department leaders have made themselves
available in a variety of formats to answer questions about how cities can
submit the most competitive application possible,” a spokesperson replied to
emailed questions. “[The justice department] looks forward to reviewing
applications from across the country that demonstrate how creative solutions
and close teamwork between local and federal partners can achieve the same
dramatic gains in public safety seen in Washington DC and
Memphis. This is the Make America Safe Again mission in action.”
The department did not answer questions about the
repayment provision, and declined to say whether it had yet received eligible
applications, or whether city governments would be required to accept the
activation of the national guard under the grant program.
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