$5.8M in Public Safety Staffing grants awarded

The Executive Office of Public Safety and Security on Oct. 31 announced nearly $5.8 million in fiscal 2025 Municipal Public Safety Staffing grant awards.

Grants ranging from $123,000 to $1.6 million went to police and fire departments in Brockton, Fall River, Framingham, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Newton, Malden and Somerville.

In an effort to bolster emergency response services, the Municipal Public Safety Staffing program provides funding for eligible municipalities to address staffing shortfalls in their public safety departments. To be eligible, a municipality must have a population of at least 60,000 and demonstrate that its police departments had an operating budget per capita of less than $200 in 2010.

Cities use the funding to pay overtime for staffing shortfalls and to shift coverage as well as salary for academy recruits, according to the Office of Public Safety and Security.

For more information on the Municipal Public Safety Staffing Program, visit the EOPSS’s Office of Grants and Research website.