H.R. 3458 — Strong Communities Act of 2025

This section establishes the COPS Strong Communities Program under the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant authority. The program authorizes the Attorney General to make competitive grants, beginning in FY2025 using otherwise appropriated COPS funds, to local law enforcement agencies (i.e., state, local government, or Indian Tribe agencies engaged in criminal law enforcement) to cover costs for officers and recruits to attend law enforcement training programs at eligible entities—defined as institutions of higher education (per 20 U.S.C. 1001) coordinating with local law enforcement or local law enforcement agencies themselves—provided participants commit to a service obligation. To receive benefits, participants must serve full-time as law enforcement officers for at least four years during the eight-year period after training in a local law enforcement agency within seven miles (or 20 miles if in a county with fewer than 150,000 residents) of their residence where they have lived for at least five years, with certification by the hiring agency's chief administrative officer; failure to complete the service requires repayment of benefits received, subject to Attorney General regulations on extenuating circumstances.

This section requires the Attorney General to submit annual reports to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees on recipients of law enforcement training grants under section 1701(q) of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (as added by section 2). The reports must detail (1) for the preceding one-year period, the number and location of recipients and the number of law enforcement officers and recruits each intends to send to training programs at eligible entities using grant funds; and (2) from enactment of this Act to the report date, the number of such officers and recruits who attended the training and returned as employees of the recipient, and the number who remain employed by the recipient.