By Jennifer Rawls, Director of Communications, Mayor’s Office

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Mayor Kim McMillan is proud to announce that the City of Clarksville is receiving over $1.7 million dollars in grant funds from the U.S. Department of Justice’s COPS Hiring Program (CHP).

The grant funds may be used over a three-year period and will be used to hire 14 new police officers. Although the City was informed of the grant’s award on September 29, the effective date was September 1, 2014. It is anticipated that the 14 new officers will be hired by June 30, 2015.

“We have a goal in place to staff the CPD at 2.0 officers to every 1, 000 citizens,” explained Clarksville Police Chief Al Ansley. “This grant will allow us to meet that goal a little more quickly. Based on Clarksville’s population and other indexes, this goal is where we need to be with the number of officers on the force. “

“Obviously, we are very excited with the grant award,” said Mayor Kim McMillan. “We are able to accomplish two important things with these funds. First, we are able to put more officers on the street more quickly than we probably would have otherwise. Secondly, we are going to save money because this grant award will allow us to add these fourteen officers without having to provide the budgetary funds for their salaries and benefits for the next three years. This is really good news for the CPD and for the citizens of Clarksville.”

Chief Ansley plans to use these officers effectively by placing an even greater emphasis on community policing and to enhance special units, such as gang intelligence. New officers hired through the grant funds will replace those that have already been assigned to the special units along with those who will be assigned in the near future.

These additional officers will help CPD continue its outstanding status as one of the best police forces in the nation. Clarksville currently boasts the lowest crime rate of any Tennessee city with a population of over 100,000 and compares very favorably with all police forces in the State regardless of population or agency size. CPD has a high closure rate, including the closure of all but one homicide that occurred in Clarksville in 2013 and 2014 by arrest.

Clarksville was one of three cities in Tennessee to receive funds and it is believed that the Clarksville grant is the largest received by any City in the country with a similar population.