In the second wave of grants from this year's crime bill aiming to hire 100,000 officers nationwide, four Utah police departments were authorized to hire a total of 16 officers.
President Clinton announced Monday that Salt Lake City will receive $675,000 to hire nine more officers; West Valley City will receive $215,0121 to hire three; and Provo and Orem will receive $150,000 to hire two new officers each.The new grants bring Utah's total of new officers authorized through the crime bill so far to 44.
The first wave of grants allowed the Salt Lake County sheriff's office to hire 20; Sandy to hire four; and Midvale and the Wayne County sheriff's office to hire two each.
Amid debate on the crime bill, the Clinton administration also accelerated police grants from other existing programs. Salt Lake City also received funding for 20 new officers from them, and the Weber County sheriff's consortium received funding for four.
So all police hiring grants to Utah departments during the year provided enough money to hire a total of 68 new officers in the state, the Clinton administration said.
Clinton made the announcements of the new wave of grants at gala Justice Department ceremonies Monday - inviting police chiefs or mayors from many of the 631 departments that were given money to hire 4,688 new officers.
Salt Lake Mayor Deedee Corradini had planned to attend but canceled because she was not feeling well, her office said.
"We have now put about 10,000 of our 100,000 police officers in process to be on the street, and we're going to keep going until it's all done," Clinton said.
He also used the ceremony - where police chiefs posed near Clinton in front of a huge American flag - as a campaign rally against changes he fears the new Republican-controlled Congress could make to the crime bill.
For example, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, incoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the bill, said many in the GOP are interested in revisiting its ban on semiautomatic guns and its Brady Bill seven-day waiting period for gun purchases.
"Let's leave them right where they are," Clinton said.