NJ congressman reintroduces bill that would fund small police departments

With support of both sides of Congress and both parties, a bill to provide money to small police departments across the country is being reintroduced, according to Rep. Josh Gottheimer.

Appearing Friday morning at the Fort Lee Police Department, Gottheimer said the Invest to Protect Act now has support to be approved in both the House and Senate.

"Last year, this bipartisan legislation passed the House with more than 300 votes, including 153 Republicans," he said, "And, now, we have the support from both sides of the aisle and both sides of Congress to get it signed into law."

The bill will provide support to police departments that have fewer than 200 officers, but, he noted, more than 94% of departments in the country have fewer than 100 members. All of the municipal departments in Sussex County fall into the latter category.

The bill "will make critical investments in law enforcement, in training, in recruitment and retention of officers and in mental health,' he explained.

"Now, we have the support... to get it signed into law," the congressman added.

The bill is being introduced in the Senate by Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

This year's version of Invest to Protect Act provides funds for local departments to recruit, retain and support officers and to get them the training they need. The bill also allows local departments flexibility in how they can use the money to meet the particular needs of their departments and communities.

Among some of the potential areas the funds will support are investments in officer safety; de-escalation and domestic violence response training; as well as more specific training geared to different needs in different parts of the country.

More than a score of state and national organizations involving police have endorsed the bill.

A study of police departments done in 2016 showed a disparity in size of departments. While only about 3% of all local police departments served populations of 100,000 or more, those departments employed more than half of all full-time sworn police officers in the country.

On the other side, 71% of local police departments served populations of less than 10,000 residents.

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In Sussex County, all police departments but Newton, are along the eastern part of the county, including Vernon, Hardyston, Hamburg, Franklin, Ogdensburg, Sparta, Andover Township, Byram, Hopatcong and Stanhope. The total number of police officers among those departments is less than 250.

Hopatcong Police Chief Meghan McCluskey said there are often mandates coming from the New Jersey Office of Attorney General − which oversees all police in the state − for additional training and services and any source of funding to pay for such training would "be welcomed."

This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: Josh Gottheimer reintroduces bill to fund small police departments