Filling Public Safety Vacancies Act (HR4024)
Current understanding
HR4024 (introduced) would increase appropriations for the DOJ Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) hiring grant program, which funds state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies to hire additional sworn officers. As a condition of using those grant funds, hiring agencies would be required to conduct background checks and psychological evaluations on candidates before appointment. For workers (prospective officers), this adds standardized pre-hire screening; for employer agencies, it expands available federal hiring subsidies while adding compliance conditions tied to grant use. Status: introduced.
Evidence log
- 2025-09-11 — Enhancing First Response Act: cross-connection with public-safety-telecommunicators-soc-classification: Both address workforce recognition and staffing pipelines for public safety personnel; SOC reclassification of telecommunicators could interact with public safety vacancy-filling policies. (novelty: 2)