September 25, 2025
Oak Harbor Police Department Awarded $625,000 for a US Department of Justice grant to fund 5 New Officer Positions
Oak Harbor, WA - The City of Oak Harbor Police Department has been awarded an U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program grant.
The COPS Hiring Program is a competitive award program designed to provide funding directly to law enforcement agencies to hire and/or rehire additional career law enforcement officers in an effort to increase their community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts.
Anticipated outcomes of the CHP program awards include engagement in planned community partnerships, implementation of projects to analyze and assess problems, implementation of changes to personnel and agency management in support of community policing, and increased capacity of agency to engage in community policing activities.
In February 2024, Police Chief Tony Slowik presented a staffing update to the City Council during the regularly scheduled workshop. In the presentation Chief Slowik noted that Oak Harbor has the lowest number of officers per capita in the State. He also noted that officers have less time to actively engage in community policing and engagement due to administrative and other required activities, like report writing, evidence processing, follow up investigations and shift briefings.
During the presentation, Chief Slowik presented a scenario of adding one full shift to the Department utilizing the grant funding, if awarded. The increase in fulltime officers would allow for more flexible scheduling, increased community engagement and increased community policing activities. The City applied for the grant in June and received notice on September 17 that the OHPD was awarded $625,000 for all five positions.
The five-year grant provides approximately $42,000 per position per year for three years. The City will fund the other half of salaries and benefits for each position. The five-year period accounts for recruitment and training for the positions.
The Department will begin recruitment for these new positions in 2025.
Five other cities in Washington state were awarded the COPS Hiring Program funds.
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Resolution 24-18 Authorizing Oak Harbor Police Department to Apply for Grant Funding
PRESS CONTACT
Magi Aguilar, Communications Officer
maguilar@oakharbor.org
360-279-4501