Nearly $8 million in U.S. Department of Justice grants coming to Western Washington to improve public safety

Press Release

Cities, Counties, and non-profits awarded funds for specific programs or technology upgrades

Seattle - The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice programs has awarded nearly $8 million to cities, counties, and non-profits in Western Washington to enhance public safety, announced U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman. The grants fall into two broad categories: support of programs that reduce crime and technological improvements to better serve the public.

"It is a competitive process to get these federal dollars, and I congratulate the departments and organizations on the success of their applications," said U.S. Attorney Gorman. "Whether it is personnel on the street to assist people in crisis or DNA processing machines to better identify those responsible for criminal conduct, these dollars will make a difference in our community."

The largest grant, in the amount of $1,926,000 was awarded to the City of Seattle to support the Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) Department. The funds will allow the CARE team to expand citywide with 18 additional staffers and three more supervisors to respond to community members facing behavioral health or related needs.

Similarly, the City of Tacoma was awarded $963,000 to create a program of Community Service Officers. These would be civilians who can respond to calls concerning mental health crisis and homelessness related issues. The program is designed to take some of the burden from Tacoma Police officers who have historic staffing shortages.

The King County Sheriff's Office was also awarded $963,000 for hiring mental health professionals to join the Crisis Intervention Team. The mental health professionals will assist with public safety calls involving the need for mental health services.

Tacoma Municipal Court and the non-profit Choose 180 both received program support as well. The Municipal Court will use $500,000 to enhance two court programs: mental health court for those with serious and persistent mental health issues; and Community Court which assists a broader range of defendants dealing with homelessness, substance use disorder and minor mental health issues. The funding will go for staff training, case management services and a research project with a university to evaluate the program and make risk assessments.

Choose 180 is receiving $552,000 to support two of its programs aimed at reducing youth gun violence. The school-based diversion program works with students at risk of suspension and expulsion to keep them in an educational program and disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. The second program, CHOOSE Freedom offers services to youth and young adults at risk of gun violence engagement.

Three government entities and one non-profit received funding for technological improvements. The city of Bellevue received $963,000 for its body-worn camera program. Both King County ($811,000) and Whatcom County ($440,000) received funding for rapid DNA machines and technology for better and quicker processing of crime scenes. Finally, the King County Sexual Assault Center (KSARC) received $790,000 to modernize the non-profit's database which will allow staff to spend more time with sexual assault survivors and less time working with out-of-date software and data systems.

The grants are all part of the 2024 Office of Justice Programs Byrne Discretionary Community Project Grants. The Byrne Grants are named in honor of New York City Police Officer Edward R. Byrne, who was killed in the line of duty on February 26, 1988. Officer Byrne was just 22 years old.

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Updated September 5, 2024