Thanks to a grant of over $1m from the Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program the city of Fayetteville will be adding 15 more police officers to its force in addition to the 30 positions the city had previously approved.
According to Chief Harold Medlock of the Fayetteville Police Department, the Department of Justice understands the needs of the city, what the police department is doing to protect it, and how this prevents and reduces crime in the community.
There are already 390 officers on the force. These 15 officers, along with the 32 that the city council approved, will make nearly 440 uniformed officers in the city. The hope, Chief Medlock added, is that this will help to improve the relationship of the force with the community, as it will enable more involvement from the department. He believes officers will have more time to respond to calls and to deal with deep issues in the community that might be leading to crime and quality of life issues.
Mayor Nat Robertson commented that he hopes this shows citizens what city leaders are doing to help deal with crime in the neighborhoods. Most likely, the city is using a variety of printing services to inform the community of this growth in the police force and the benefits it will have for its residents.
