The Trump administration is offering up to $300 million in federal grants to four US cities to fund policing surges modeled after the approach used in Memphis, Tennessee. This initiative, called the Model Cities policing initiative (MCI), aims to replicate enforcement surges characterized by heavy police and National Guard presence.
According to a Department of Justice grant document, cities receiving funding must abandon progressive policing ideologies, comply with federal immigration enforcement requests, enact conservative anti-homelessness policies, and may be required to repay millions if violent crime or civil unrest increases.
The DOJ plans to announce the finalist cities next month, marking some of the largest federal policing grants awarded to individual cities. Washington DC and Memphis, both with National Guard troops patrolling streets, are cited as models to emulate.
The administration has maintained its controversial Memphis taskforce despite four officer-involved deaths since its launch last September.
Local officials have expressed skepticism. Steven Reed, mayor of Montgomery, Alabama, said, “That’s not a model I’d be looking for.” Reed also noted he declined to apply for the grant, stating, “Everybody wants a quick fix, and no one wants to invest in the root cause of the issue.”
Karen Jarussi, speaking to the Billings, Montana city council, questioned the need for such a program there, asking, “Do we really need this in Billings?”
The city of San Bernardino, California, withdrew a vote on the grant after public outcry.
Amy Solomon, a senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice and former assistant attorney general under Joe Biden, highlighted a departure from past practices, noting that unlike previous grants, awards under this initiative will be decided by senior political appointees rather than through a politically neutral peer review process.
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