Sky's the limit in bid for COPS grant

By Thomas J. Prohaska
The Buffalo News

LOCKPORT — The city will seek the most police officers possible and use the highest salaries available in applying for a federal grant to hire five new officers, the Common Council decided last week.

The city will be applying next month for a federal COPS grant, which will pay the full salaries and benefits for the new officers for four years.

Lt. Douglas Haak, who is in charge of filling out the grant application for the Police Department, told the aldermen there's no point in trying to curry favor with the feds by making a lowball estimate of the officers' cost.

He said that last year, Niagara Falls, with a much higher population and crime rate than Lockport, asked for funding for 10 officers and received enough for five. Lockport asked for only two officers and was shut out.

"If I asked for five, I'd be crossing my fingers hoping for two," Haak said, noting that federal budget cuts have reduced the amount of money available by more than half.

The COPS program, once worth $1 billion a year, has been cut to $488 million.

"I say we max it out. It's easier to give money back to the federal government than to ask them for more," Haak said.

"Ask for the high end. I'm in favor of it," said Alderman Joseph C. Kibler, R-at large.

The top of the pay scale for a Lockport police officer, after salary increases in a new union contract ratified in December, is $58,983. Starting pay is about $15,000 less than that.

If the city receives a grant, it must pledge not to reduce the size of the police force below the current 52 officers during the four-year life of the grant.

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