Community Policing Grants: COPS Grants Were a Modest Contributor to Declines in Crime in the 1990s

October 2005 Community Policing Grants: COPS Grants Were a Modest Contributor to Declines in Crime in the 1990sBetween 1994 and 2001, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) provided more than $7.6 billion in grants to state and local communities to hire police officers and promote community policing as an effective strategy to prevent crime. Studies of the impact of the grants on crime have been inconclusive.GAO was asked to evaluate the effect of the COPS program on the decline in crime during the 1990s. GAO developed and analyzed a database containing annual observations on crime, police . . .