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More than $98M in community policing grants awarded

Several cities have been awarded more than $3.1 million each in federal grants to hire extra police officers

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In this April 13, 2016 file photo, Chicago’s police superintendent Eddie Johnson, left, shakes hands with other officers at a city council meeting in Chicago.

AP Photo/M. Spencer Green File

Associated Press

CHICAGO — Several cities, including Chicago, have been awarded more than $3.1 million each in federal grants to hire extra police officers.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions Monday announced COPS Hiring Program grants, saying 80 percent of the 179 agencies sharing $98 million in grants agreed to cooperate with federal immigration authorities in their detention facilities.

It’s not clear which cities agreed to cooperate.

Metropolitan Dade County Florida, Houston and San Antonio police departments and the Orange County sheriff’s office in California also received grants.

The grants are separate from one that pays for public safety equipment. The Trump administration threatened to withhold those grants from cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Chicago is suing the federal government for withholding that funding, and dozens of jurisdictions have supported it.