San Antonio to hire an additional 50 police officers if approved for federal grant

San Antonio City Council voted unanimously Thursday to approve the city’s police department to hire 50 additional officers once it lands additional federal funding.

Some $6.25 million in pending money from a Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant would help cover salary and benefits for those additional patrol officers for the next three years, SAPD officials said.

However, SAPD hopes to hire as many as 100 police new patrol officers next fiscal year, meaning the city will have to come up with the rest of the money to hire the additional officers, an expense that could come out to $22.8 million.

It’s also unclear how much the city will be on the hook for if SAPD fails to qualify for the COPS grant. Even so, under council’s vote, the department’s hiring of the 50 new officers is conditional upon it landing the grant money.

Thursday’s council vote is a victory for Police Chief Bill McManus, who previously said during a public safety town hall in March that the city’s rising crime rate, in part, was due to the police department being understaffed.

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This article appears in Apr 19 – May 2, 2023.