The bill will help ensure that police departments in small towns and communities with fewer than 125 officers have the resources and training they need by creating a grant program to provide resources to these small law enforcement agencies for training, recruiting, and retaining officers and providing mental health resources to their officers.
Additionally, the bill includes critical accountability provisions, allowing DOJ to preference applicants who specify in their applications that grant amounts will be used for certain eligible activities, including de-escalation training, data collection, and evidence-based best practices and training on the use of lethal and nonlethal force. To ensure the efficacy of the training, the bill requires the Attorney General to, on an annual basis, evaluate the success of the training programs in reducing the incidence of use of force by each law enforcement agency.