CENTRAL FALLS – The city has been granted $337,000 by the U.S. Department of Justice to address school violence, according to the DOJ Monday.
The funds come from the Community Oriented Policing Services’ School Violence Prevention Program. COPS is organized under the DOJ.
The grants aim to improve school safety through violence prevention. The grant program offers schools up to 75% of funding to coordinate with law enforcement, train for local law enforcement officers to prevent student violence against other or themselves, to invest in metal detectors, locks, lighting or other deterrent measures, to invest in technology for expedited notification of law enforcement during an emergency or any other measure approved by the COPS office.
The DOJ distributed $32.5 million from the School Violence Prevention program this year. More than $85.3 million was allocated to school security grants recently, including the COPS grants, according to the DOJ.
“These federal resources will help to prevent school violence and give our students the support they need to learn, grow and thrive,” said U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr in a statement. “By training faculty, students and first responders, and by improving school security measures, we can make schools and their communities safer.”
