Learning how to apply for law enforcement grants is a valuable skill for traffic safety enforcement professionals. This helps agencies equip themselves with the technology, personnel, and focused attention needed to achieve critical initiatives. From government funding for police equipment to overtime for your team, the rewards and opportunities you stand to gain are well worth the effort.
Hiring a grant writing group or individual can work for larger agencies. If you belong to a smaller agency, going through the process yourself can almost always help your team save resources. Don’t get discouraged by the fact that the grant proposal writing process can be tedious. There are a considerable number of valuable resources available online to help you along the way.
We’ve compiled some of our favorites into this resource hub, which includes grant writing tips, grant application how-to’s, next steps for funding, and more. Our goal is to help point you and your agency’s traffic safety initiatives toward greater success.
Grants.gov is an excellent resource for anyone looking into funding assistance for law enforcement. Their community blog makes for a great first stop. You can get your footing by reviewing comprehensive instructions on several critical topics through their How-To blog series.
This includes:
You can explore other helpful topics through the search feature or by browsing through the “Categories of Posts” side panel. Two topics we recommend for beginners are grant eligibility and grant writing tips. Collectively, these three blog articles do a great job of teaching readers the basics on writing grant proposals.
Quick tip: Signing up to receive notifications of new grants.gov blog posts by email is an easy way to help keep yourself up to date with the latest news and trends.
Then, use the Search Grants, Get Started, and Grant Policies tools to start finding the funding assistance that best suits your needs. Valuable as these tools are, grants.gov is not the one and only site to visit.
Another top-notch resource for government funding comes from the good folks at the GHSA. State agencies can open up a whole new world of funding assistance opportunities. Because of this, you’ll want to keep their State Highway Safety Offices hub close at hand. Use the listings to visit relevant state-based websites and look for the Grants section on their home pages. There, you can learn more about what resource programs are on the table and how to go about securing funds.
The GHSA helps make it easier to find the right traffic enforcement grants for your agency.
The GHSA Federal Grant Programs page is another key link to keep in your pocket as an aspiring grant writer. You’ll want to keep all your options open. Maximize your ability to capitalize on as many available resource programs as you can. It is true that narrowing your focus for each specific grant is a must. With every new grant application, getting down to specifics and nailing the details are key. Still, we recommend starting with a large pool.
Use these other favorite web resources to boost your success with writing grant proposals.
Popular Grant Assistance Resources:
Public & Private Grant Funding Services:
Laser Tech’s webinar on writing law enforcement grants is available as a PDF with all slides and a full transcription.
Our traffic safety law enforcement grant writing webinar is now available as a PDF. This features all original slides and a full transcription included as click-to-toggle notes. The advice offered in each section can help you learn best practices and tips for writing successful grant applications. It has been a few years since this webinar went live, but the themes and lessons discussed by our panel of traffic safety experts remain helpful and relevant.
Here are six examples of the key topics covered by our panel:
Download the Writing Grant Proposals webinar as a PDF
Contact our team if you have any questions for your regional Laser Tech representative, who may be able to help further specify which resources will work best for you based on your location, resources, and traffic safety needs.
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