WESTERLY, RI - U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) today announced that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has awarded over $395,000 to the Westerly Police Department to help improve school safety and upgrade intrusion detection and security at Westerly High School.

"These federal funds will enhance the security and safety of our students. The Westerly Police and the Westerly School Department have had an outstanding relationship and these security system upgrades will help provide the tools necessary for a quick and effective response in the event of an emergency," said Reed, a member of the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees DOJ programs.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for the community of Westerly allowing the Westerly Police Department and Westerly School Department to continue in its combined efforts to provide a safe learning environment for our students. This funding will help create a safer and more secure campus for the students while enhancing the police response to the school through the most modern technology available," said Edward A. Mello, Chief of the Westerly Police Department.

Senator Reed helped secure a pot of $16 million in funding available nationwide through the Secure Our Schools (SOS) grant program at the DOJ Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) for Fiscal Year 2010. Reed was also a strong supporter of Westerly's grant application and wrote a letter support to the Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services in July of 2010.

In 1994, Reed, then a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, helped pass legislation creating the COPS program. Over the years COPS has provided more than $48.1 million to local police departments across the state, including $1,070,897 for Westerly.

Westerly High School is currently undergoing a substantial renovation project which includes enhancement of the school's security systems. This federal SOS grant will help fund technology upgrades to allow police officers and dispatchers responding to an emergency inside the school to view school security cameras. It will also provide funding for an intrusion detection system for all school structures, allowing police officers to better respond to after hour breaches of school buildings, and the addition of state-of-the-art door locking hardware that includes a sophisticated access control system.

The Westerly Police Department is one of only 167 law enforcement agencies around the nation to receive SOS grant funding this year. Each SOS grant application is competitive in nature and is two years in duration.