By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Of the nearly $300 million in federal funding for local police departments announced Friday, none of it will be given to the NYPD, the nation's largest police force.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) grants, totaling $298 million, will allow 379 police and sheriffs' departments to hire or retain 1,388 officers for the next three years, but none of them will wear NYPD blue, according to the list of winners released by the DOJ on Thursday.
Rankings were based on the fiscal needs of the agency, crime rates and plans for future policing activities, materials on the DOJ website explained, but not everybody agreed with the department's methodology.
"This formula makes absolutely no sense and punishing New York City and other municipalities for their success in keeping crime down and people safe sends the wrong message to law enforcement agencies," New York Senator Chuck Schumer complained to the New York Post.
Sen. Schumer was similarly critical last spring, when the Department of Homeland Security cut $42 million in federal funding to the city for mass transit security. Even with the cut, the department dolled out nearly $111 million for the program, which helped to fund the massive expansion of the city's anti-terrorism surveillance system last month.
The only winning applicants in New York State were the City of Binghampton and the Gloversville Police Department, which received around one million and half a million dollars respectively, the DOJ list said.
Sacramento, Calif., was the biggest winner under the DOJ rubric, raking in $21 million to fill 50 positions. Tucson, Ariz., and Metropolitan Dade County, Fla., also won big, scoring $12 million each.
