Suburban departments won't get cop grants from feds

President Barack Obama's administration handed out $1 billion in federal stimulus money Tuesday to hire nearly 5,000 police officers across the nation.

But not one dime is ending up in Chicago's West, North or Northwest suburbs, apparently because they are not as poor or crime ridden as municipalities that will get to split $26 million coming to Illinois.

Some suburban mayors were hoping to land a federal grant to beef up police departments as they face budget shortfalls.

Hanover Park has recently faced a surge in gang-related crime with fewer tax dollars to combat it, and Mayor Rod Craig said the federal money was sorely needed.

"We are right in the middle of an economic crisis, and we have found ourselves in need of a number of police officers," Craig said. "We were really looking forward to receiving a consideration."

Likewise, Elgin Mayor Ed Schock said he was hoping the federal funds could fill five police positions left empty to save cash.

"I'm surprised we didn't get any money," Schock said.

The winners include several South suburban and downstate towns. For example, Carbondale won $563,313 and Evergreen Park $801,285 to hire three officers each. The biggest Illinois grants went to Chicago, which landed $13.3 million to hire 50 officers, and Rockford, which will collect more than $3.6 million to hire 15 officers.

The federal agency in charge of doling out the $1 billion issued a statement Tuesday underscoring the intense competition for the grants. The agency focused on delivering the funds to municipalities with a combination of high crime rates and severe budget problems.

However, Obama's $787 billion stimulus package also directed that each state receive at least $5 million and that half the money would go to towns with fewer than 150,000 residents. That led to municipalities without high crime or relatively bad budgets still winning grants in states like Wisconsin and Wyoming.

"Our office saw a tremendous demand for COPS grants and made funding decisions based on a variety of quantifiable data," said David Buchanan, acting director of the Justice Department's community policing division.

Nationwide, more than 7,200 applications were received totaling $8.3 billion in requests. Slightly more than 1,000 applications were ultimately approved for a total of $1 billion.

In Illinois, 376 municipalities requested money, but only 21 actually won the grants.