The White House announced today that the Justice Department had awarded funding to more than 220 cities and counties to create more than 600 new law enforcement positions and maintain 200 positions lost or at risk of being eliminated as a result of local budget cuts.
But the jobs aren't available to just anybody. In fact, there's one very important requirement: Only military veterans can apply -- in fact, only fairly recent veterans. Applicants must have served at least 180 days in the military since Sept. 11, 2001. President Obama announced the hiring initiative back in February.
The initiative is under the auspices of Justice's Community Oriented Policing Services program, which funds salaries and benefits for new officers and deputies for three years.
Grantees under the program include the cities of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta and Los Angeles.
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