The national NIJ-sponsored evaluation of COPS covered roughly the first 4 years of the COPS program, with primary focus on the AHEAD, FAST, MORE, and UHP programs.

Among the principal findings of the evaluation are the following:

• By May 1999, 100,500 officers and equivalents had been funded. Preliminary estimates indicate that between 84,700 and 89,400 will have been deployed by 2003. Because some officers will have departed before others begin service, the federally funded increase in policing levels may have peaked in 2001 between 69,000 and 84,600. Estimates are that these levels will fall to 62,700–83,900 in 2003.

• COPS funds enabled law enforcement agencies to implement new community policing programs without cutting back on existing programs or increasing the amount of time needed to respond to calls for help.

• By the end of 1997, the COPS program had awarded 18,138 grants worth $3.47 billion. Of those, 754 were for innovative programs and the remaining 17,384 were intended to increase policing levels. By May 1999, another $1.9 billion had been awarded, about 74 percent under hiring grants and the remainder under MORE.

• The 1 percent of grantee jurisdictions with the highest murder counts received 31 percent of all COPS funds awarded through 1997. The 10 percent of grantee jurisdictions with the highest murder counts received 50 percent of total COPS awards. A similar award pattern applied with regard to robbery.

• COPS grantees were more likely than nongrantees to report increased use of community policing strategies such as citizen surveys and crime prevention projects. These grantees also were more likely to have made organizational changes to support community policing.

• Many COPS grantees were building partnerships with other community agencies, but site visits revealed that partnerships sometimes were in name only or were simply standard, temporary working arrangements. In observed sites, many crime prevention efforts were undertaken, usually as traditional programs now subsumed under the community policing label.

• Many smaller police agencies reported high levels of satisfaction with the COPS program's application and administrative processes. Larger agencies found administrative requirements no less burdensome than those of other grant programs.