Rutherford, Gottheimer introduce legislation to help small police departments

U.S. Reps. John Rutherford (FL-04) and Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05) have introduced the bipartisan Invest to Protect Act of 2022. The bill would make critical, targeted investments in local police departments and ensure that police officers in smaller communities across the country have the resources and training they need to keep themselves and their communities safe.

“Small police forces in rural areas often suffer from a lack of operational equipment and services,” said Rutherford. “That’s why we introduced the Invest to Protect Act, which creates a grant program for departments with fewer than 200 officers to support critical resources like body cameras, training, retention and mental health care. Thank you to my colleague, Rep. Gottheimer, for leading on this important legislation.”

The Invest to Protect Act will create a grant program for police departments with fewer than 200 officers, including:

• Investment in de-escalation and domestic violence response training, allowing officers to receive critical training that will make them more effective at their jobs. It also allows grants to be used to offset overtime pay so training does not put a strain on department budgets.
• Investment in body worn cameras, while also providing much-needed resources and guidance for data storage and data security.
• Investment in officer recruitment to help expand departments and bring in new officers. This grant can also be used by departments to provide retention bonuses to help keep their existing officers and provide educational benefits for officers pursuing graduate degrees in public health, social work and mental health.
• Investment in departments to provide mental health resources for their officers.